The Dragonets Aren't Coming
by The Squid Guy
Summary: AU. The Dragonet Prophecy was never created; Clay has grown up a normal Mudwing, with no acts of heroism to his name other than managing to get his entire troop through the Sandwing War. Now, with a queen ostensibly at the Sandwing throne and a world ostensibly at peace, he just wants his life to calm down. Unfortunately, a certain Skywing queen doesn't seem to want that to happen.
1. Chapter 0 - Nightwing

Morrowseer was beginning to feel rather frustrated with himself. Of all the things in Pyrrhia, why did he keep thinking about her?

She was a nobody. She wasn't a noble, a general, a princess—she was a _nobody_. She had tried to walk down here with him, actually. Other Nightwings had urged her away—quickly, very quickly. Before they'd even stepped into the wing of the castle Morrowseer currently found himself in. Before they'd even made it to the hallway leading there, in fact.

A hallway—a _hallway_ had been too close for her. That was how much of a nobody Secretkeeper was.

So why did she keep coming back into his mind? There were things eons more important to think about, lots of things: how to greet a ruler who never showed herself, how to talk with a dragon who never listened, how to present a plan to someone who hadn't interacted with her subjects in years.

Lots of things.

The large dragon closed his eyes, inhaling, running the words through his head for only the thousandth time: _When the war has lasted twenty years, the dragonets will come. When the land is soaked in blood and tears, the dragonets will come._ He exhaled, his soft breath shaking the rhythm in his head, the familiar lines wavering a bit before dissipating completely. The future-writing Nightwing frowned as his mind grew quiet, his eyes slowly opening back to the dark emptiness around him.

He could've gone on. Granted, the other verses—the second one, especially, which would have to be written with personal support from his queen—weren't completely developed yet. But there was still a general idea. A Seawing. A Mudwing. A Sandwing. A Skywing. And, of course, a Nightwing. A diverse group of dragons, all "miraculously" brought together to save the world.

But continuing these thoughts—at this point, especially—was unnecessary, senseless. How the prophecy's words rhymed, how they flowed, how they made other dragons feel—it was all pointless. The prophecy itself, as any enlightened dragon would have known, was pointless, was nothing, was no more than some fancy words for other dragons to gawk at. The real importance lied _behind_ the words of his prophecy, the plan in his mind that his _poem_ simply hinted at. The sentences he'd ran through his head—and had been running through his head for months—held no more value than the ash forever coating his scales.

Morrowseer sighed, tapping his talons as his head fell, his thoughts subtly but dangerously spiraling out of control. Unconsciously, as normal, he began thinking of those _other_ words, those tender ones—the ones she'd said to him after he'd entrusted her with everything he shouldn't have: _Come on, Morrowseer, what you're thinking is irrational. If the queen hadn't liked whatever she'd heard from you, she wouldn't have wanted to learn more—in a_ personal _conversation, no less. So_ please _, stop worrying about getting thrown into lava. You and I both know that you're way too important for that._

It took Morrowseer a moment before he realized what his mind was doing. It took him another before he disconnected from fantasy and found himself back in reality. But with a sudden unconscious whiff of dusty sulfur, Morrowseer was back in his sweltering, silent-as-death room—shuddering, alone. He spat out the taste of rancid smoke and then sighed, turning his head from nothing, his earlier annoyance replaced with something much closer to despair.

He couldn't keep thinking about her. Not when he had to think about _her_.

 _Her_ : The queen. A powerful dragon, yes; one that demanded reverence, certainly. But it was more than that: Battlewinner, Queen of the Nightwings, was a dream. A fantasy, an incredible fairy tale for dragonets to center their games around. A specter that only revealed itself through the occasional flesh-turning moan, a myth that dragons told ghost stories about in the dark. A nightmarish bit of fiction, a scale-raising legend, a dragon like Darkstalker. _She_ was hardly a Nightwing at all; instead, the queen was a force, which drove its subjects without hesitation or mercy. Even though some Nightwings could recall memories of her before the catastrophe—including, if he thought hard enough, Morrowseer himself—no one really knew her, not anymore. Battlewinner had turned into a complete mystery, and as far as any subject of hers knew, she wanted to keep it that way.

She did not _talk_ with members of her tribe. She did not _call_ dragons into her home to _discuss_ things with them. She was not a _dragon_ in the first place; _she_ was the Queen of the Nightwings. _That_ was why what Morrowseer was about to experience was unheard of.

That was why he couldn't keep thinking about Secretkeeper.

He needed complete focus. This conversation could destroy him if he made even a single mistake, but if he could pull it off, if he could present his plan to his queen without a flaw, it could—no, it _would_ change the world, and all to his and his tribe's benefit. He just needed that focus—and Pyrrhia would fall into his claws.

So, why did Secretkeeper keep coming back into his mind, when his thinking should have been preoccupied with his queen and his plan? Morrowseer grimaced as he thought and, again, let his mind stray away. He was trying to figure out the allure of Secretkeeper's words; if he could at least understand them, he figured, he might then be able to effectively defuse them, suppress them, and refocus. But instead of simply analyzing and fighting the words he let into his mind, Morrowseer quickly found himself experiencing something else, something he didn't realize at first was nothing more than a distraction. It wasn't much—a small twinge in his stomach, no more—but it was enough to take the unnerved knot in his gut and blanket it with something that, if it hadn't been so intrusive, just might have been close to comforting.

 _I keep talking to you_ because _you focus too much._ She'd interrupted him during a drafting session, and he'd snapped at her in return—yet, in a move more stubborn than loving, Secretkeeper had stayed at his side. She'd told him to listen, steadfast and calm, even as he'd tried to turn away and go back to his work, even as he'd tried vehemently to get her away from him, even as he'd tried his absolute hardest to think clearly and fight past her empty comfort.

"Morrowseer," she had said, "I understand."

 _Battlewinner hardly talks to her own daughter, much less with any dragon on her council, and now she wants to talk face-to-face with you; believe me, I get why you're stressed. But you need to calm down; at this rate, you're going to kill yourself with worry before the queen even gets a chance to do you in. No, don't play that game with me, Morrowseer, you_ are _worried. But—Morrowseer, please, look at me—you don't have to be._

 _You've already impressed Her Majesty, which is something a dragon hasn't done in… oh moons, decades. She's probably just called you in for some last-minute considerations, and she's already made up her mind to accept whatever you've concocted. All the pieces are there: You're a tactical genius, she trusts you more than most anyone in this kingdom, you've proven your loyalty to her time and time again—and now, you've caught her very fleeting interest._

 _...Look. Whatever the queen demands, you can give. She's just another dragon. Go up there and present your plan, as moving and flawless and amazing as always, just like you'd do in front of the council on any other day. Your plan—no, you—_ you _can save our tribe. I know it._

And then Morrowseer had blinked, and he'd looked at Secretkeeper and hadn't turned away, and he'd felt something in his stomach then, just like now: something warm... something soothing... something... something...

...Something that didn't matter.

Something that his wife had said to simply make him _feel_ better, even though work on something as important as his prophecy should have left no room for comfort. Something that did not help the Nightwing tribe, would never help the Nightwing tribe, was no more relevant than a small "hello" or "goodbye." Something worthless, something pointless, something completely insubstantial—something that was nothing. Something like _everything_ Secretkeeper had _ever_ said to him during his work— _nothing_.

Her words were _nothing_ , her _sympathy_ was _nothing_ , the dragoness herself was _nothing_! Morrowseer actually had to catch himself from lashing out in anger, from slamming his tail or smacking his clenched claw against the floor, as surprising—and horrifying—as that was. But in the moment, he hardly cared: He was about to talk with Queen Battlewinner; his tribe's fate and, more importantly, _his_ fate was at risk tonight! This plan should have taken his focus, not _Secretkeeper_! She should have stayed _out_ _of his head_! So _why_ did she KEEP COMING BACK INTO HIS MIND!?

...It took him a moment, but Morrowseer eventually realized that his wings weren't folded at his side. They had unfurled slightly. He did that when he was angry; it was a habit he'd thought he'd stamped out. Morrowseer's eyes moved down, towards his claws. They were clenched tighter than he had realized; his black scales were beginning to show a little white underneath. The Nightwing let out another sigh and unclenched his claws, closing his eyes, beginning to breathe a little less passionately.

He breathed rhythmically—again, and again, and again—and eventually re-opened his eyes, letting his gaze scan the dim room around him. His focus fell on the map of Pyrrhia in front of him—the only other thing in the room he'd been led to. Morrowseer strained his eyes and focused hard on that map, letting his gaze move over every mark, every scratch, every note inscribed on that diagram—thinking about just how many dragons were accounted for in that small piece of parchment.

Then the map shifted. The large Nightwing's focus jumped as it did; Morrowseer sighed, then straightened himself, confident now that his thoughts were clear and intent. He watched the map jolt as if possessed by a ghost; it quickly swung to the side like a curtain, revealing a small, pitch-black hole. Morrowseer didn't do anything more to control his emotions; he didn't need to. He just kept his body upright and told himself the things he already knew: _I am strong, I am intelligent, I_ will _succeed at my task—for I am a Nightwing, and I control Pyrrhia._

And then, from the shadows, came a young dragon, the "distinguished" Nightwing who was going to direct Morrowseer to his queen and back: Greatness, Battlewinner's only princess. She stepped into the open apprehensively, her eyes darting as if watching for predators, her scales still blended with the darkness around her. Morrowseer's sturdy expression dropped as he watched her antics, slowly faltering into a small, hardly-noticeable frown.

The small gecko scampered out in front of him, avoiding his eyes as she moved to his claws. She gulped—she _gulped_ , as if he was something for the princess to be scared of, not the more sensible other way around—and timidly arched her head skywards, viewing his relatively towering form. Her voice failed to sound; she looked genuinely dumbstruck at the sight of him. Morrowseer raised his eyes expectantly, slightly widening Greatness's own—as if the princess had suddenly remembered that she had a job to do.

She forced herself to swallow and breathe, attempting to calm her doubtlessly-thumping heart and clear distress from her posture. Surprisingly, this worked decently well: Any shaking, any wandering of her gaze, any sign of nervousness in general was temporarily suppressed as Greatness managed to keep her eyes on Morrowseer's, inhale deeply, and then state (calm and loud—surprise again), "The queen is ready to see you now, Morrowseer."

Automatically, the large Nightwing nodded and stepped forward. But even as he did, Greatness's mask began to falter—she gulped nervously as he moved ahead, and Morrowseer saw her gaze flicker when she thought he wasn't looking. The seer sighed as he crouched into and began crawling through the dark tunnel in front of him, contempt rising in his stomach.

Sure, Greatness could talk. Sure, Greatness could "appear" strong. Sure, Greatness was a good figurehead—but that was all she was. The real Greatness was a small, scrawny, scared dragon—a coward, terrified of anything more than her own shadow. The real Greatness was not authoritative, threatening, or queenly; she was a royal who thought royalty was a curse. The real Greatness did not and _could not_ command dragons, only appearing to hold power— _real_ power, power that _ordered_ and wasn't just a calm or emotionless expression on her face—when her mother was at her back. When her "power" was only borrowed from the queen.

True, Greatness was still young. She had time to grow out of her timidity. Maybe she would change—but somehow, Morrowseer didn't find it likely. In his experience, cowards, especially cowards who thought they were entitled to cowardice, never changed.

Still, Morrowseer knew how delicate the situation he was walking (or rather, crawling) into was. Battlewinner had done something for him that she hadn't done for anyone since the disaster; he was her very special, very unique guest, and he was determined not to show his host any disrespect—and that included anything directed towards her daughter. So Morrowseer simply kept his head straight and his posture tall and, overall, tried his hardest to completely ignore the princess at his side.

It wasn't very hard. From the few glances he snuck at her, Greatness appeared to be trying to do the same as him. Her eyes were locked forward; her steps pushed ahead with outward confidence, although the slight tremble in her body gave her inside fear away. Morrowseer caught himself frowning again; reminding himself of what he'd just thought, he looked away from her and back ahead. The cramped tunnel they were crawling through was beginning to open anyways, the cave in which Battlewinner had been forced to live for years now beginning to show in their view.

Morrowseer pulled himself out of the tunnel and lifted himself back up, gently shaking his wings clean of their accumulated layer of ash. His eyes quickly scanned the circular room: It was huge, walls stretching high into darkness, the only anomalies in the emptiness himself, Greatness, and a large crater in the cavern's center. Intense, suffocating heat poured in from this cavity, the low churning of molten rock audible from below. A soft, flickering glow came from the pit, gently illuminating the heat-distorted air around its edges. It was all very intimidating—befitting of what the subject could remember of his queen.

Morrowseer cautiously stepped towards the crater, leaving a suddenly-paralyzed Greatness in the shadows of the tunnel. _She_ was down there. Battlewinner had been in that lava-filled hollow ever since the catastrophe with the Icewing. All Morrowseer could do now was walk to the edge of the pit, stand there, and wait.

The seer glanced back at his princess as he neared the crater's edge, wondering why she wasn't following. With one look, he understood: Greatness was _horrified_. She had pushed herself as far away from her mother as she could, her body compressed as small as possible, her wide eyes burning with fear. Morrowseer snarled as he turned his head, stepping to the side of Battlewinner's pit upright and furious.

 _She's pathetic. Here_ I _am—an important council member, yes, but nothing royal—and who's standing tall in front of his queen, and who's hiding like she's been sentenced to death? Greatness is our_ princess _; she should be able to stand up to her_ mother _, at the very least. She's an embarrassment—not just to herself, not just to her queen, but to the entire tribe._ Morrowseer had reached the edge of the crater by now, and was tapping his talons angrily as he thought. He felt no sympathy, no pity—certainly no respect for the young, scared princess. He only felt angry, disgusted, that this _lizard_ was going to be his queen one day.

Morrowseer began entertaining dangerous thoughts then, things much worse than some distracting-yet-well-meaning words from Secretkeeper. He failed to ever see a queen in the weak princess, and he dared to let "remedies" close to treason slip into his mind. He thought that maybe someone _else_ might be better for the throne, that if Greatness could not rule, maybe a strong husband could do so for her—that, perhaps, the tribe just might wind up better off with a king.

And then his queen spoke—one word: his name, long and drawn-out and icy—and the Nightwing seer jumped as he heard the hissing, chilling, "Morrowseer."

The dragon in question quickly focused back on the crater, berating himself, yelling at himself for the idiotic notions flowing through his brain. Later, he would wonder how his queen had known of his presence—Greatness certainly hadn't announced him, and he doubted that Battlewinner could have seen him from where she hid herself—but in the moment, all Morrowseer concentrated on was the sound of claws scraping against rock, of Battlewinner slowly and painfully pulling her body out of her lava.

She did not leap into view, like how some majestic sea creature would do from water. Instead, her front claws appeared abruptly, her talons, half the size of Greatness, grasping onto the edge of the crater with the force to crumble it. Then—slowly, painstakingly, with every move causing the queen no less than agony—Battlewinner began to appear. Eyes shut in effort, her head and upper body rose into Morrowseer's gaze, hisses of breath coming slowly, carefully, excruciatingly. Once she'd lifted about half her large form above where her subject stood, she stopped, still as stone.

Then, with sudden vitality, her eyes snapped open—tinged with ice, as if bloodshot. A long, rattling exhale escaped the queen's maw as she shuddered to life; her body began trembling uncontrollably, the queen's pained shaking revealing the effort it took for her to simply keep her position. Her mouth, ajar, exposed a thin coat of powder blue; a crystal of ice had formed on her tongue, and small icicles had grown from her fangs. Battlewinner carefully turned her head down, her eyes moving towards Morrowseer. Her subject immediately kneeled and bowed.

"Your Majesty. It is a pleasure," he said, only his eyes daring to lift.

"Indeed."

Morrowseer was suddenly struck with an image of a ghost, a ghastly feeling that the dragon in front of him wasn't alive at all. Battlewinner's voice had been nothing more than a weak, struggling wisp of wind—and even that had noticeably pained her. Combined with the frost spread and slowly spreading across the queen's scales and insides, Battlewinner appeared as a half-dead phantom—as something not alive, but also not dead. Something in between— something in some horrible, hellish state of limbo.

She was suffering, and she'd hardly moved. She was shivering, and she'd just left her lava. Her expression was cold, and it would never thaw—it would grow no warmer than the Icewing frost freezing her insides.

Clearly, the queen did not find their meeting a "pleasure."

This observation, however, did not make Morrowseer falter. Instead, it filled him with a sort of empowering flame, a shining plume of lava inside of his body. Battlewinner, he realized—Queen Battlewinner, the fearless and powerful and invincible Queen of the Nightwings—was presenting herself to pain, _torture,_ just so she could talk with him about his plan.

Pride. He felt pride in his chest. Not an overpowering, blinding amount of pride, but pride nonetheless—a controlled, justified, _righteous_ amount of it.

Morrowseer finished his bow and lifted himself back up, standing tall as his new fire glowed. Even though his show of respect had lasted no longer than a few seconds, the Nightwing felt himself both changed and powerful, ready to face his queen. Battlewinner's irises followed his movement, quickly sliding in a way that didn't seem possible for the otherwise frozen dragon. She rasped, not bothering to use energy moving her head or even changing her expression, "Well. Business.

"Your prophecy. The one you've said will—" Abruptly, Battlewinner stopped mid-sentence, taking a slow, shaky, pained breath, apparently having tried to speak too much at once. Morrowseer silently watched the horrible scene in front of him, expressionless and controlled even as his ruler broke apart in his gaze. "Will aid our tribe?" she continued, moving her head upwards as if to show she wasn't hurt, even as soft cracks sounded in her frozen joints. "Save it, even?

"Tell me it. Your plan. _All_ of it. Now."

She sank downwards, breathing deeply, moving her body closer to her life-saving lava as her eyes burned into Morrowseer with all the fire that was left in her body. She, of course, had heard the details of most of Morrowseer's plan already—but formalities dictated that he repeat it to her, to make sure that she understood his plot in its earnest and where, if anywhere, to find fault in it. Just as well. Formalities were his specialty; working through them was his talent. If Battlewinner wanted formalities, Morrowseer would give her formalities—for this, this instant, was what he had been waiting for. This was his moment, his chance to speak up and take the world—and he wasn't going to let it slip for anything. He breathed in, just as he would have if he had been in front of the council. He met Battlewinner's eyes, straightened his body, collected himself—and he spoke.

"Your Majesty, as you no doubt aware, our tribe is dying. This island—this volcano—is strangling us. There's not enough to eat. Illness runs rampant. Less eggs are laid each year, and even fewer hatch. And most importantly, the very ground underneath our talons threatens to erupt and kill us all. We cannot stay where we are.

"At the same time, the other tribes of Pyrrhia believe—as they will continue to believe—that we retain the ability to see the future. A Nightwing-made prophecy will not be questioned; as such, the dragons of Pyrrhia lie in our claws. Their ignorance makes them usable—so I say, why not twist them to something of our use?

"One more thing that you know—the war on the mainland. The Sandwings have fallen to pieces and have taken the rest of the world with them, fighting viciously, yet in too many directions for there ever to be a decisive outcome without interference. Already dragons are feeling the horrors of war, and already they are desperate for relief. They want something to save them from their self-inflicted bloodshed; they will soon _need_ something to bring them reprieve from death. And again, this bodes well for us. As you are most certainly aware, Your Majesty, _nothing_ is more powerful or more dominating than hope.

"These three things—our problem, their ignorance, and this universal hope for peace—combine to give us a potent opportunity. My plan, in a few short words, revolves around manipulating the dragons on the mainland into ending their own war—after all, direct involvement by our tribe will not be accepted by certain factions, one tribe in particular. No, we will instead raise a group of young, malleable, and diverse dragonets to act in our steed—molding their brains to our control.

"These 'Dragonets of Destiny' will show up in Pyrrhia like angels, like prophets from fate itself. They will tell Pyrrhia which queen to accept, and Pyrrhia will be so far deep in despair that it will have no choice but to listen. Of course, these dragonets will pick the queen who _we_ want to rule—and by doing so, bring a ruler into the Sand Kingdom indebted to us, someone _so_ grateful for her new position that she'll _have_ to give us something in return. Something, perhaps, which we can us to make our already strong tribe invincible: an alliance.

"This brings us to the most important and, for us, most rewarding part of my plan. It should be obvious what these allies are needed for: taking our new home. Consequently, the question shifts from _how_ to _where_ —and I've already deduced the perfect place for us to settle.

"We need a home that we don't need to fight a major war for—so we take a region that's defenseless, filled with dragons weaker and more ignorant than most. We need a home that can nurse the injuries from our previous one—so we take the most bountiful region on Pyrrhia. We need a home that will let us grow into the untouchable force we once were—so we take a region so spacious most Nightwings will never see its ends. And we need a home that truly represents the power and glory of our tribe—so we take the most beautiful region in the world."

Morrowseer raised his eyes at Battlewinner, and even though he knew that she knew what he was going to say, he still grinned at her—smugly, proudly, evilly. "So," he said, "we take the rainforest."

His smirk fixed on his face, Morrowseer's continued speech boomed out of his throat, his voice confident and strong, any hint of the slight nervousness that might have pervaded his posture before now unmistakably gone: "Its only inhabitants now are the Rainwings—stupid, lazy, _worthless_ dragons, who could hardly do a thing to us alone, much less to a powerful Nightwing–Sandwing alliance. We will invade, we will crush any resistance, and the Rainwings will fall, at which point we can either eradicate or enslave them—your choice, of course. With the Rainwings gone and the rainforest ours, we can finally become the tribe that we are supposed to be. _All_ the horrible suffering caused by our current home—the malnutrition, the disease, the lack of successful hatchings, the fear of extinction constantly looming over us—with this new domain, all of it will end.

"It's a drastic plan. I understand that—but these are desperate times. We _need_ a new place to live, and what true resistance does the rainforest offer? Perhaps you worry that other dragons will watch our easy conquest of the Rain Kingdom and see an effortless takeover for themselves, maybe even calling their invasions justified. But that's the purpose of our Sandwing allies—once we return to the mainland, they and their threat of a major war will protect us until our tribe has recovered from the generations of torture this volcano has provided.

"The prophecy itself is soon to be completed. We will insert a—"

"No," Battlewinner suddenly interrupted, her cracking voice louder than expected—enough to echo off the walls of her empty room. Morrowseer started, his mind suddenly blank, his eyes dumbly attaching to his queen's. The Nightwing Queen only stared back, thinking silently, an eerie, icy gust blowing in and out of her mouth as she breathed. Long seconds dragged by; Morrowseer didn't dare take his eyes from Battlewinner's as the queen slowly prepared to speak.

"The idea," she finally whispered, breaking the frozen silence. "I like it."

Morrowseer instantly felt that previously-controlled (and by now, almost-burnt-out) pride flare up again, almost to the point of outburst. The Nightwing seer quickly suppressed the emotion before he let out something stupid, like a giddy cry of glee; the dragon in front of him seemed not to notice, and simply continued watching him, forcing herself to keep talking.

She breathed in. "Rainwings—true, they can't hurt us." She breathed in again, her body trembling as she did. "The rainforest—yes, it's an easy capture." She breathed in one more time, pain showing all throughout her figure as her posture began to collapse. "And you're right—we _do_ need a new home."

She then paused for an uncomfortable amount of time, silently regaining herself. "But," she eventually and abruptly hissed, "the execution." She stopped again, wind rushing past the icicles in her mouth and into her shivering lungs as she took another slow, desperate breath.

"It lacks _sense_ ," she managed, almost spat, before she dropped her head and coughed, forced to regain her overstrained voice.

Morrowseer's flare of pride had already gone from suppressed to extinguished while he'd watched Battlewinner struggling in front of him, but now was when its embers turned cold and froze. New emotions—disbelief, disappointment, bewilderment; emotions that he _hated_ —began to fill him, but these new feelings were quickly suppressed, just like all the rest. The Nightwing seer was determined not to show weakness as he stared at the struggling queen in front of him, no matter what he truly felt.

Although, he couldn't help but wonder—what did she find wrong with his plan? The use of dragonets, perhaps? Morrowseer had _tried_ to re-work that part of the prophecy, and he had only found failure. A group of crusty old dragons chosen to act as the innocent saviors of the world? It was ridiculous; no one would believe the Nightwings, and that was besides the fact that adults already had their own opinions and loyalties—they were not easy to manipulate, like children were.

So then what? He hadn't even told her about what he found the most worrying part of his plan: the almost-decade long wait before the dragonets would mature and the prophecy would take effect. Too many things could happen in that time—one of the sisters might win the Sandwing throne, the rainforest could be occupied by another tribe for its resources, or, worst of all, the volcano could erupt again, destroying the Nightwing tribe for good. But the wait seemed necessary to instill legitimacy; a prophecy stating that a bunch of dragonets would come and tell them how the war would end _tomorrow_ wouldn't have the same effect on a group of dragons as having them wait for years. But again, Morrowseer hadn't told her about that; what _did_ Battlewinner find wrong with his plan?

"The prophecy."

The Nightwing seer was hit with a jolt; his eyes, previously having wandered as he'd thought, aimed back towards the queen. Battlewinner was trembling again; it looked like she was trying to swallow. Morrowseer let her finish without interruption, not letting his confusion show, and the queen eventually moved her eyes back to his.

Then, with words unbroken, without any hint of her horrible internal injuries other than quiet hiss of her voice, she spoke: "Why is it _necessary_ , Morrowseer?"

Morrowseer blinked, a chill rushing through him as he struggled to comprehend what his queen was thinking. The prophecy was necessary for forming an alliance with the Sandwings and not going to the mainland without protection—he'd said that only a few minutes earlier, by the moons! The Nightwing seer swallowed—his throat was vaguely dry—and repeated, "Your Majesty, if we don't use this prophecy to form an alliance, other dragons may attack us in our fragile new home—"

"Why?"

Again, the sudden interruption startled Morrowseer—even though he should have been getting used to Battlewinner's crude disruptions by now. The seer hesitated, and his queen elaborated in his silence: "What tribe would…" Battlewinner grimaced, straining as she regained her voice, trying to recover quickly, "...risk _everything_ … to attack _us_?" She had to stop then, coughing hideously, but then she struck back, her blue eyes holding a fury that Morrowseer couldn't comprehend. "Remember:" she rasped, " _We're_ strong. They're weak. They are in _our claws_.

"I think your plan—it's smart. Heartless. Necessary. But with one flaw.

"We can take the rainforest—we _will_ take the rainforest. Just like you want. But we'll do it _alone_."

Morrowseer didn't even have a chance to think of a reply during Battlewinner's quick, tortured pause. The queen had moved even closer to her lava, and it seemed to have warmed up her jaw or her lungs or _something_ , because she was talking relatively quickly now: "You said so—dragons don't want to fight. They're killing themselves already—why throw themselves at _us_? Rainwings—they can't hurt us. Not themselves. Not with help. We invade, they fall— _without_ effort. Let the other tribes— _the Icewings, perhaps_ —" Battlewinner suddenly hacked in pain, her sudden surge of hate apparently too much for her. Morrowseer watched wordlessly; Battlewinner eventually continued, blazing rage in her eyes, "Let _them_ destroy themselves. But the Nightwings— _we_ do not need to get involved, Morrowseer."

Despite their inherent weakness, despite the fact that Battlewinner had to stop and gasp afterwards to regain the ghastly rasp that came out of her mouth, despite the fact that the queen had had to move even lower to stop any more ice from crystallizing on her scales, the large dragon's words still managed to reverberate powerfully around her chamber. Morrowseer felt an assault from every possible angle as Battlewinner's voice slowly faded from the room. And even after the sound had faded, her declaration stayed ringing in his mind.

To a less experienced dragon, they'd be overwhelming. To someone like the shivering, wide-eyed Greatness still huddling in the shadows, they'd be absolute. Battlewinner's words held absolute power—an implication that her resolve was unbreakable. To most dragons, the queen had already made up her mind.

But to Morrowseer—whether it be from superior intellect or levelheadedness or dumb perception or just sheer stubbornness—Battlewinner's words had held the slightest hint of doubt.

She knew that an attack on the peaceful Rainwing tribe would lead to condemnation from all the others. She _knew_ that moving to the mainland without allies was dangerous, overconfident, and could easily lead to disaster. She _knew_ that Morrowseer's prophecy could very well be better for the Nightwing tribe in the long flight—after all, what glory would the Nightwings receive after ending the worst war to touch Pyrrhia in decades? Without a doubt, Battlewinner _knew_ that Morrowseer's plan had its merits.

Morrowseer knew that he could still convince Battlewinner to his side. Morrowseer _knew_ that he could still make her believe that using a prophecy was the best way to safely conquer their new home—he _knew_ that his queen was smarter than haphazardly establishing a new, vulnerable kingdom on the mainland. It would only take _a little bit more_ persuasion; he _knew_ that he could jump on Battlewinner's faint hesitation and use it to his advantage. He still could change the world in the way he desired _—_ he _knew_ so.

And he was about to defend his plan, to try and twist destiny back into his own claws, when his queen spoke up again.

She had been slowly sinking back into her lava, its heat apparently too alluring for her to resist, but then she had stopped and caught her subject's eyes, again halting Morrowseer's thoughts as she hissed his name—although (and it was very hard to tell), her voice seemed… softer, this time.

"Morrowseer. This plan—it's yours. It _will_ be treated so. You—I can make you great. You _will_ be great…" Battlewinner struggled for a second, before whispering, " _General_ Morrowseer. Of my… _dedicated, specialized,_ and _powerful_ … invasion force."

Morrowseer had remained attentively silent during his queen's speech, his thoughts about how to effectively sway his queen to his side temporarily replaced with respectful interest on her words. Despite his refocused concentration on his queen, however, Morrowseer had kept his plan's virtues and reasons for implementing constantly running through his mind—until his queen had uttered those two words.

"General Morrowseer"—these were the words that had finally made Morrowseer freeze.

Silence filled the room as Battlewinner's voice faded, and the Nightwing only blinked at her, again, somewhat dumbly. Abruptly, his brain jolted into action, and Morrowseer began thinking again—quickly, very quickly. Battlewinner had just offered him the chance to revive the Nightwings (the whole point of his plan, mind), with the only difference from his original proposition the lack of a time-consuming, difficult-to-implement prophecy. Did he… Did he _want_ to take that offer? Morrowseer's eyes fell—not much, hardly noticeable, but his gaze was broken nonetheless—and the Nightwing thought hard, his mind never straying far from the words of the dragon in front of him.

 _Was_ she right? Could the Nightwings invade the rainforest without allies, move to the mainland without protection? Would dragons see weakness in a new Nightwing Kingdom, or strength from the dragons who had conquered the Rainwings? And most importantly: Did a prophecy change any of this, or was it just Morrowseer's way of proving, elevating himself? Morrowseer tried to foresee the future; he ran calculations and made predictions and attempted to function as if he were a Nightwing with true foresight. The future, as always, remained unclear.

Finally, the Nightwing seer blinked, then sighed quietly. His eyes remained in the distance for a second before he brought them back to his queen's. Battlewinner still appeared uncomfortable, frozen, cold; Morrowseer needed to give his response, and soon. He knew what he had to say, in any case. It just took a few seconds before his voice began working again.

"I understand, Your Majesty," he said, lowering his head, his voice still strong and powerful. "I will do as you wish—to the very best of my ability."

"Good." Battlewinner's hiss came with the slightest of nods; a sudden irrational shiver rushed through Morrowseer as his queen's response echoed. "Greatness…"

Morrowseer raised his head back up just in time to see Battlewinner disappearing from his view, his queen dropping into her lava without a second glance, a soft crunch-like sound resonating through the room as Battlewinner submerged her body back into molten rock. For a second, the Nightwing seer felt confused at his queen's final hiss, until he saw movement in the corner of his eye and realized she had been referring to the princess, not the concept. The small dragon quickly scuttled to Morrowseer's side before immediately urging him away—and the large Nightwing watched his stammering princess for only a second before he nodded, turned, and began walking.

He made it back to the tunnel before his doubts began again.

But this time he snarled to himself, refusing to amuse his insecurities. Battlewinner _was_ right, he told himself; a prophecy _was_ needlessly complicated. The Sandwing who was picked as queen could betray the Nightwings, turning on the weakened tribe before they could rebuild. The dragons of Pyrrhia might not listen to a group of barely-grown dragons, and instead twist the prophecy to their own ends. And again, the volcano itself could suddenly erupt while the Nightwings were waiting for the dragonets to grow.

No. Logically, the Rainwings could be destroyed without effort, and the Nightwings could take their new home with ease. Morrowseer's tribe did not need to get involved, however indirectly, in a war unbefitting of their true interests.

The Nightwings would still get their new home. The Rainwings would still get obliterated. The dragons on the mainland, even, couldn't fight forever. And the plan was still his—just without an unneeded addition.

He had still proved himself to his queen. He was still going to control the world. Nothing would change; they just hadn't needed his prophecy.

They _didn't_ need his prophecy.

Battlewinner _was_ right.

Nothing would change.

Nothing.

* * *

 **A/N: Three things. First, I don't own Wings of Fire. (WOAH, REALLY!?) Maybe I should have written this higher up, but a) I feel like it's pretty much a given and b) I couldn't find a way to put an Author's Note up there without ruining the tone I was trying to set up. So that's why the standard warning is down here. You know, if you had a burning desire to know.**

 **Second—and this should also be fairly obvious—massive spoilers are ahead. Massive spoilers already took place, really, but spoilers for everything Wings of Fire related—that includes the main series _, Darkstalker_ , and all the Winglets—are to be expected throughout the following story.**

 **And third, thanks for reading! Reviews are always nice, especially if you're new and/or have super writing skills and have a couple tips for an amateur. Speaking of being new—that huge blob of text below here? It's silly. If you've never seen this story before, I'd say it's best to just ignore it. If you're curious about why I bothered implementing all the changes in this new version of the chapter, however, then read on. In any case, thanks again for reading, and hope you continue!**

* * *

 **Update Log : If you're familiar with the old version of this chapter, you've probably noticed a great amount of new _stuff_. Like, around 5,000 words worth of new _stuff_. And while I'm not going to bother writing down my reasoning behind _everything_ I did differently in this new version, I do feel a sort of accountability in explaining some of the major things that I've changed in this chapter.**

 **First, and perhaps most importantly in my priority-skewed mind, is Battlewinner's speech. That doesn't mean her monologue—that means her _way_ of speaking. The basic problem was that before, I had Battlewinner talking like a normal dragon. As it turns out, however, as shown in _The Dark Secret,_ Battlewinner physically _cannot_ talk like a normal dragon: Her insides are frozen to the point where she has to struggle with every gasp of breath. I therefore _completely_ reworked her dialogue, generally restricting myself to six or less syllables before putting some form of pause in her speech. There are a couple of aversions to this rule, mainly for drama, but for the most part, Battlewinner now talks like she should.**

 **With that somewhat blatant canonical error out of the way, however, most of the changes come down to pacing and detail. This chapter was really, really, _really_ quick and jumpy before—it read like a rough draft, mainly because it _was_ a rough draft. What I did in this new edition was to try and slow down the pacing and work on the somewhat lackluster description—this is what accounts for most of that aforementioned _stuff_.**

 **That thing at the beginning with Secretkeeper? Those, like, two lines about Greatness in the old edition? The mystery and terror the Nightwings hold around their queen? The introduction and subsequent world-defining rejection of Morrowseer's prophecy? And most of all, Morrowseer's constant thoughts and worries about him and his prophecy's flaws? All of it's fleshed out and quite a bit longer, with _The Dark Secret_ and _Assassin_ being the two big compounds making up said flesh. A lot of this detail is actually building towards later in the story, but there's still a good amount of _stuff_ here subtly dedicated to _why_ Morrowseer let the prophecy fail in this AU, other than just, you know, IhavetogettheplotgoingsomehowsoIguessMorrowseerjustgivesup.**

 **That all said, however, the whole chapter remains very love** **–hate for me. There's a lot of _stuff_ that I sometimes think slows the chapter down _too_ much, and then sometimes think is necessary for character development, foreshadowing and imagery purposes, and just a little pinch of humor. I understand that the chapter isn't really _that_ exciting** ** _—_ some of that coming from its basic concept (Morrowseer _thinks_ about many things ******(and boy, is Morrowseer the kind of guy who'll go off on long, impassioned tangents)** and then _talks_ with Battlewinner—woo hoo, excitement!), and some coming from the fact that I'm basically retelling a part of the actual series. However, if you've already read into TDAC (especially into Part 2), you should understand why a lot of the _stuff_ here is important. Things will speed up, I promise—I just felt like nothing else could replace this chapter and some of its more ostensibly-trivial details as the prologue, at least not in a way I'd be satisfied with. **

**This shouldn't be a common theme, by the way. The long update logs—most will probably be pretty short, actually. It's just that this chapter in particular went through _a lot_ of redevelopment—more than anything else, working with Morrowseer and Battlewinner _killed_ my account on FanFiction. It still ain't perfect, but I'm at the point where _I don't care._ I put too much effort into this story already to let _one_ chapter kill it. **

**So, if you read this story in "the old days," thank you, seriously, for sticking with me through all my crap. If you're new and ignored the comment above about this block of text being silly, thanks for your interest in the story and how it's evolved. And for all of you… well, I can't make love hearts on this site, but if I could, they'd be everywhere. Thanks for reading, seriously.  
**


	2. Part 1: Chapter 1

_It's impossible._

A Mudwing was frantically bolting through a dim swamp, the sun made dark through a heavy canopy of tangled cypress leaves. Mossy overhangings, rotting stumps, and dark pools of mud flashed past this dragon as he pushed forward, his legs burning fiercely from his desperate, panicked effort.

 _I can't make it to her in time._

This Mudwing was quite a large dragon, easily muscular enough to be considered strong and burly. Years of endless war had tempered his body from an innocent dragonet's into a battle-hardened soldier's; the sparkling shine in his eyes had long ago given way to a dull, hard glare. Even though his wings and tail had miraculously been spared anything more than the mark of a light scratch, his legs and body were rough with the remnants of a dozen healed scars—most noticeably, a large one, which he'd gotten in a fight with an Icewing, running down the middle of his upper torso to somewhere behind his front right leg.

 _She's dead..._

Despite these war wounds, though, his body was still one of a dragon in his prime—fitting, not just because he _was_ an adult and had been for some time now, but because he had considered himself emotionally mature even before his biological age had agreed.

 _My sister's dead..._

Everything worked in his favor—his sturdy build, his battle scars, even the way he would sometimes distantly reminisce about the war. Certainly, he had made more than a few Mudwing girls stop, stare, and swoon over him.

 _I can't save her!_

But to this dragon, right now, none of that mattered. His build? He didn't care; he lived in it. His scars? They didn't bother him; they were just a few harmless kinks on his body. Other Mudwings? He'd never mated, not because he was averted to it, but because he'd simply never had a chance to.

No, right now, only one thing in the world was important to this Mudwing.

His baby sister.

On the ground. Her limbs sprawled. A Sandwing over her.

About to die.

What did anything else matter if his sister was in danger? How could Clay _not_ be in the grips of complete, disabling panic?

Pheasant, his irreplaceable little sister, was some far, incalculable distance away, but that distance didn't matter, not when it came to Clay's ability to assess the situation. The Bigwings was clearly able to see that the Sandwing who'd attacked Pheasant had his sister at her feet.

The tan-scaled, barbed-tailed dragon had appeared from nowhere, quickly engaging the lone Mudwing in battle. Pheasant had done her best to fight the desert-native dragon off, but the Sandwing had easily overpowered her resistance and knocked her to the ground, belly-up and vulnerable. Now the Sandwing was standing over her prey, reveling in her victory, tauntingly rubbing her stinger across her opponent's chest. And now Pheasant was frantically begging for mercy, her eyes locked on the tail scratching back and forth across her body, desperately whimpering, "You won! I surrender! Please, I _surrender_!"

But Clay could already tell that this Sandwing was one of _those_ dragons, one of those horrible, _irredeemable_ dragons. The Sandwing did only two things in response to Pheasant's pleas: She smirked, and she lightly pressed her stinger against Pheasant's chest, pushing the Mudwing's scales right where her heart was encaged.

She was _teasing_ Pheasant. She was _torturing_ Clay's sister, as if killing her wasn't going to be bad, be horrible, be _evil_ enough.

"P-Please... I surrender... don't kill—"

"I don't take prisoners, _Mudwing."_

And then the Sandwing raised her tail, arching its tip towards Pheasant's heart, and Pheasant _shrieked_ in panic, clenching her eyes shut and begging one last time for the Sandwing to spare her life.

If there was ever a time for Bigwing heroics, it was now. Now was the time for Clay to dramatically slam into the Sandwing, throw the dragon far away, and yell something both extremely violent and incredibly uncharacteristic—for example, "STAY AWAY FROM MY SISTER, YOU PIECE OF SANDWING FILTH! IF YOU EVER COME NEAR HER AGAIN, I WILL RIP OUT YOUR INTESTINES _AND PERSONALLY SHOVE THEM DOWN YOUR THROAT_!" It was his duty as Bigwings; he _had_ to protect his siblings, through sickness and through war and through anything and everything else. No matter what he had to do. No matter how violent or cruel or monstrous he had to let himself become.

"PLEASE, NO! _PLEASE_!"

He couldn't lose her. Pheasant was one of the six dragons more important to him than anything else—ever since he'd helped her out of her egg, ever since she'd blinked from the new sunlight in her eyes, ever since Clay had gently nudged her before waddling off to break open his other siblings' eggs, they'd been by each other's side. They'd fought through a war together—fought Icewings and Sandwings and Seawings together, always wondering if one of them would be gone the next day, eyes closed and body limp and chest still. Losing Pheasant now, after fighting so hard and for so long, was inconceivable. He _couldn't_ lose her.

The Sandwing was laughing. Insanely, like some over-the-top villain from one of Asha's bedtime stories. Except this dragon wasn't some far away myth—she was right in front of Clay, her laughs malicious and loud and _real_.

Clay knew that he could run harder, that he could get to the Sandwing in time, that he could slam the lunatic off his sister. He wasn't going to let Pheasant die. He wasn't going to let this monster take her from him. He was going to save his sister if it killed him.

With a sadistically playful flourish, the Sandwing poked her tail towards Clay's sister, stopping just before her stinger penetrated Pheasant's chest. The monster let out a horrific, deranged giggle, watching Pheasant sob with glee.

Clay breathed deeper. He ran faster. It wasn't enough, so he breathed even deeper and ran even faster, trying desperately to close the distance between him and his sister. But no matter how hard Clay tried to run, he couldn't feel himself getting any closer to Pheasant. Even as the Sandwing stopped laughing and only listened to Pheasant's cries, a smirk on her face as her stinger gently circled its target, Clay couldn't reach his sister.

Why couldn't he move?

Pheasant hesitantly opened her tear-stricken eyes; the Sandwing's grin turned wide and toothy. With a start, Clay realized that this was what she'd been waiting for: the look on Pheasant's face as she realized that this was her end.

The barbed tail rose dramatically into the air, then plunged down towards Clay's screeching sister.

Why couldn't he move?

"PHEASANT!"

Why couldn't he _move_?

"CLAY!" _  
_

Why wouldn't his moons-forsaken body MOVE!?

" _HELP ME!_ " _  
_

Instead of ramming into the Sandwing and saving his sister, all Clay did was give himself a perfect view of Pheasant as the poisonous stinger speared straight into her heart.

Pheasant wailed as the tail impaled her, the appendage ripping through her scales like they were water. Blood sprayed out of her chest as she twitched upwards, coating her earth-brown scales with a sickening, thick crimson. Pheasant screamed and she twisted and she bled and she cried, but the Sandwing only smiled and held her down, slowly twisting her tail and her poison further and further into the Mudwing's heart.

Clay stopped running, his breaths turning shallow along with his sister's, as he was left to powerlessly watch Pheasant's blood-covered chest rise less and less with each intake she took. It rose, then it fell. Then, Pheasant's desperate thrashes quickly slowing, it shakily rose again. Then it fell. Then Pheasant managed to raise it again, that same struggling agony in her movement. Then it fell. Then, Pheasant's eyes shutting weakly, it just _barely_ lifted itself upwards. Then it fell. It didn't rise again. It never rose again.

Pheasant was dead.

 _Pheasant_ was _dead_. Clay's little sister was _gone_. A horrible, crushing feeling of emptiness overtook him; Clay's body didn't just feel hollow, it felt cold and disgusting. He didn't want to watch, but his eyes stayed glued to his sister's corpse as she slowly slumped over, her head lolling to the side as the last traces of life left her body. He hated himself— _he_ hadn't been able to save her, _he_ had let her die, _he_ was the reason why Pheasant was never going to open her eyes again. It was hardly even comprehensible: for a Mudwing to lose a sibling was like another dragon losing an arm; a vital component was gone, and that dragon could never be the same. Siblings were a Mudwing's life; without them, a Mudwing had nothing. Losing a sibling was a proposition Clay didn't want to think about, nor one he wanted to understand. It was one he _desperately_ did not want to understand.

But he did. Pheasant was dead.

And the monster who had killed her was still over her body, letting her tail continue to pump gallon after gallon of poison into her corpse.

Almost at the exact same time this thought went through Clay's head, the killer seemed to realize that her victim's older brother was standing near. She turned towards him, ripping her tail out of Pheasant with sudden force, so much so that Clay's sister rolled slightly and faced him. The frozen expression on her face was despaired, scared, pained; tears soaked her snout, and blood covered everything else. Clay winced, turning his eyes away—he couldn't bear to look.

Instead, Clay focused on the Sandwing, who stared straight back into his eyes, her expression wicked, smug, taunting. She started prowling towards him, her slow strides exuding power and superiority, her deadly tail swinging back and forth without care. She seemed to grow bigger as she got closer, the movement of which happened quickly—much too quickly. It didn't make sense: Clay had been _sprinting_ towards Pheasant, and he had never gotten any closer, so how could this Sandwing simply _step_ forward and approach _so quickly_?

Clay tried to examine Pheasant's murderer, but his frantic brain was struggling to comprehend the nearing Sandwing. One minute, the dragon's rough body and the sadism in her expression made her look like Burn, the Sandwing Clay wanted to believe had been his old ally. The next minute, the calculation in her prowl, with every step designed to be as intimidating as possible, made her look like Blister, the Sandwing he wanted to believe was his new one. And the next, the Sandwing's form would shift again, maybe appearing like someone whom he had seen or known in the war, maybe not appearing like anyone at all—but always changing, always smirking.

His brain could only grasp one thing: She never stopped growing. By the time she'd halved their distance, the Sandwing had already grown twice as large as she'd first appeared—as big as some of the oldest dragons Clay had ever seen.

He was starting to panic again. The dragon's new size brought with it a sense of power, so much so that the Sandwing in front of him was beginning to appear invincible. He needed support if he was to fight her, but he couldn't see any. Where was the rest of his troop? Where was Marsh? Umber? Sora? Crane? Reed?

"Oh, they're all dead," the Sandwing smiled from above, reading Clay's thoughts like a Nightwing, articulating her words in a rough, raspy voice, yet one that was still obviously female. Clay realized, in horror, that the Sandwing sounded almost exactly like his birth mother—like _Cattail_. "And _why_ is simple: They're all dead because of _you_."

Clay tried to step back from the giant in front of him. He couldn't. He tried to lower himself into a defensive stance. He couldn't. He just tried to move, in general. He couldn't. He couldn't do _anything_. Anything, that is, except for stammering, "No. You're lying."

Because the Sandwing _had_ to be lying. His whole troop couldn't be dead. He couldn't have turned his back and lost every single one of his siblings in a split second. Losing Pheasant was crushing, but losing his entire troop would destroy him—it couldn't have happened. He'd been with them seconds before, he knew he had; how could his entire troop _possibly_ be dead?

"Oh, they _are_ dead, and it's all because of your _horrible_ leadership," the Sandwing grinned as she came closer, towering over him, now larger than any natural dragon could have ever grown. "They've all died because you weren't able to _lead_ them, because you weren't able to _protect_ them." Her smile disappeared, her expression suddenly dead serious as she snarled, "Because you're a _failure_."

And then she stopped, and then she took a huge step to the side, and then she let Clay's eyes fall on what had been covered with fog moments before. The mist had cleared, so now Clay was able to see what lied beyond: a clearing full of dead dragons.

It only took a second for Clay to realize that he knew every single one of them.

Reed, Marsh, Umber, Sora, and Crane filled the field. But none of them were breathing, and all of them were covered in fatal, grotesque injuries. Crane's head was gone, her body still except for a sudden twitch; Sora's throat was cut open and caked with dried blood, her eyes rolled up and blank; Reed's neck had clearly been snapped, for his head was twisted unnaturally to the side; Umber's scales had darkened to a charred black from a series of burns, only his bloodshot eyes not smoldering and dark; and Marsh's stomach and chest had been brutally ripped open in a huge gash—and Clay really didn't want to accept how gruesomely mutilated his younger brother was now.

The Sandwing started laughing again, her loud, hideous voice echoing between the trees, but the Bigwings's eyes stayed paralyzed on his siblings. How could he have moved them? How could he have done _anything_ but stare, frozen, at the dragons he had loved? Even if he _had_ been able to move his limbs, his mind had shut down in horror and disbelief; his overwhelmed brain could only process a few things, all repeated over and over: His family was dead. He had lost his entire troop. There was nothing left to live for. And it was all his fault.

Clay's breaths turned faint, hollow; his eyes began burning as he regained himself only to almost instantly break apart. Slow, hot tears rolled down his face as he tried and failed to back away, run away; his legs grew weak, and Clay let out a sudden wail as his frazzled emotions abruptly shattered into a complete and utter mess. Wet, noisy sobs interjected themselves between his bawls, his loud howls about how sorry he was, how weak he was, how worthless he was as a leader and brother. He did not, however, notice the Sandwing moving closer to him, the huge dragon always laughing, her intent perfectly clear: Kill the Bigwings. Eradicate the troop.

Now so big that she could hold Clay in her talons, so big that she had pushed aside the canopy, so big that she blotted out the sun and had covered her prey in darkness, the Sandwing lowered herself and clenched her claw around Clay's unresponsive body. Even if he'd been able, Clay wouldn't have resisted; there was no point, no reason for living—he _deserved_ to die here. Self-preservation kicked in too late; by the time his instincts tried to take control of his body and fight his attacker, he was already in the Sandwing's grasp. She raised him above the canopy and held him in the sky for a tense second, smiling, showing her fangs. Then she squeezed, and Clay's diamond-hard bones snapped like branches.

Clay howled in pain, feeling his broken ribs impaling his heart and lungs as the Sandwing's clench tightened. Agony burned through his body, quickly taking control; all he could think to do was squeeze his eyes shut, cry and wail some more, wait for death to come. It hardly helped, and his eyes were forced open anyways as he began coughing up blood, crimson pouring out of his mouth and turning the whole world red. Clay clenched his sopping eyes shut again, feeling blood gushing from everywhere, trying to cough it out, failing, dying, slowly dying...

...Maybe, after it was all over, he could see his siblings again. That was a nice thought. Clay grabbed it and held it tightly, even as his blood blocked his airways and he began to suffocate. He forced himself to keep thinking about it; if he was going to die, he at least wanted some serenity. Slowly, Clay lost the ability to think about other things; soon, it was the only thing he _could_ think.

The Sandwing's laughing turned muffled, hazed—Clay's head swirled, vertigo gently rocking him to sleep. _I'll be with you soon, little sibs... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..._

And then, suddenly, the pressure on his lungs vanished.

Clay's head abruptly cleared, his brain working so hard he could feel it burning in his skull, his heart beating so fast he could feel pushing against his chest. The Mudwing's terror and grief gradually disappeared, to be replaced with bafflement: His bones weren't broken, he realized, and his throat wasn't clogged, and something was softly pushing against his shoulder, a gentle voice vaguely audible. _Everything just... stopped? So... did I… die? Am I in some afterlife?_

There was only one way to find out: Clay slowly lifted his eyelids. What he saw was the exact opposite of some ethereal heaven (or torturous hell). What he saw was a lean, amber-eyed, and very, very worried Mudwing standing over him—a Mudwing he recognized as his oldest brother, Reed. This brown-scaled dragon's claw lifted from his big brother's shoulder, his expression filled with worry. When he spoke, it was soft and quiet: "Clay? Are you all right? You were turning around in your sleep, and you were mumbling a lot, so I thought you were maybe having another nightmare."

 _A nightmare? That wasn't real?_ Clay realized that he was off his bed of leaves and on the muddy ground, breathing heavily, heart pounding, part of him still believing that all his siblings were gone and that he was still going to die—which couldn't be true; Reed was right here, in what appeared to be their normal, safe hut. Clay slowly pushed himself off the ground and took a silent look around. All his siblings were in their home, sleeping quietly, right where they were supposed to be. The Sandwing, Pheasant's death, the field of his dead siblings... none of it had really happened. It had all just been a nightmare.

...Well, actually, in retrospect—of course it had been a nightmare. Sandwings couldn't read minds; only Nightwings could do that, and they kept in their rainforest for the most part. Nor could Sandwings grow to huge sizes and crush dragons like bugs—unless said Sandwing was an animus, of course. Then they could do something like that. But animus dragons didn't exist anymore; they had all disappeared from Pyrrhia decades ago. His brain had just been making up absurd horrors, scaring him with irrational fears.

Clay let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, slumping slightly. His heart was still thumping, though, his body still panicking—just because his nightmare hadn't been real didn't mean that it hadn't been terrifying.

Reed moved in closer, silently telling his brother that everything was okay, that everything was fine. "Reed," Clay managed, weakly pushing himself to his feet, taking his brother's outstretched tail and twining it in his own, "I... I did have another nightmare. Where someone—I don't know who—killed you and me and the rest of us. That... That's why I was turning and mumbling. Because I thought I'd lost you all."

Reed nodded and moved even closer to Clay, putting his wing over his big brother as a gesture of protection. "What time is it?" Clay asked, dropping his eyes and leaning towards his sibling.

The younger dragon's body moved in the motions of a shrug. "Late. Not time for work," Reed's warm voice replied. Then a chuckle came, and he continued, "Three Moons, Clay. You're gonna completely deprive me of sleep if I have to keep getting you out of your nightmares."

Clay didn't really respond; he just squeezed his brother's tail harder, although he was starting to feel a little better by now. Reed squeezed back, empathizing with his older brother and leader.

"Clay, you're safe," the younger Mudwing whispered, sympathetic and gentle. "The war is over."

"I don't feel safe," Clay replied, quietly. "How am I supposed to feel safe? I know Burn wasn't the best choice of queen, but Blister's even worse. She's cruel, she's evil—as long as she's ruling the Sand Kingdom, I can't feel safe. I keep thinking that the war's going to start back up, and then everyone will just... everyone will die."

Reed's head tenderly nuzzled Clay's, and the Bigwings sighed before pushing himself even closer to his little brother. Reed's talons gently ran over Clay's upper back, comforting and relaxing the older Mudwing; softly, the younger dragon whispered back, "Clay, look, Blister can't do anything to us. She rules the desert, and we don't live anywhere near there. And there's no reason for her to go to war with anyone; no tribe questions her 'true royalty' or anything like that—well, except for the Outclaws, but you know as well as I do that they can't start another war, no more than they already have, at least. But Blister couldn't care less about us _Mudwings_ ; Clay, we're—"

"But Scarlet!" Clay quickly winced as his shout reverberated around his hut, realizing that it was still the middle of the night and his siblings were still sleeping. He looked around at his younger brothers and sisters, wondering if his outburst had been enough to rouse one of them. Apparently not: Crane turned in her sleep, mumbling something about "scary hippos," but other than that, none of his little siblings had moved.

Clay looked back at Reed, expecting a retaliation from his younger brother. Instead, Reed's head was down, slowly shaking.

"But Scarlet," he repeated, as if affirming all the subtext Clay had put into those two words.

"I'm terrified of her," Clay managed, gently pulling himself away from his brother. "Yeah, she helped us in the war. So what? With everything she's doing now, it's like she's intent on starting another—with _us_. I can't fight another war, Reed. I... I just... I just _can't_ , okay?"

Reed didn't say anything for a while; he just stared off into the darkness, his tail still twined with his brother's. When he finally did speak, Reed's voice was quiet, tender, and soothing: "Look, Clay. Dragons don't want another war, not after the devastation from the last one. The Sea Kingdom's half-destroyed, the Ice Kingdom's half-destroyed, the Sand Kingdom's _completely_ destroyed, and the Rain Kingdom doesn't even _exist_ anymore. It's almost a miracle that Blister managed to assassinate one sister and kill the other in a straight fight; I thought we'd go on fighting forever.

"I... I wanna think that dragons won't forget that. How... how _pointless_ it is to _kill_ another dragon just to put some stupid queen on some _stupid_ throne in the middle of some _stupid desert_ so far away from most of the fighting that half the dragons killing and _dying_ for it don't even know what it _looks_ like. I... I don't wanna believe that dragons will just... do that again. I can't believe that if there are dragons alive who remember how horrific war actually is, that they'll just _sit by_ and let another one happen."

Despite the passion that had temporarily filled his voice, the end of Reed's speech had caused the younger Mudwing's head to fall, his posture to drop, a frown to take his expression as he quietly sighed—overall, making him look a bit depressed. The Bigwings had listened to his brother's speech silently and watched his transformation attentively; now, however, was the time for his protective instincts to take control. With a breath of his own, Clay stepped close to his brother, then gently nudged his little sibling.

Reed glanced up, and with the smallest melancholic smile, Clay replied, "I'd like to think that too."

Reed gave a similar subdued grin back, then pushed into his brother and cuddled for a second, each holding the other protectively, each soothed by the other's warmth. Only the gentle hum of insects and the soft breathes of dragons were audible in the night, the gentle light of the moons outside blanketing the two embracing Mudwings. Clay then gave his sibling another small nudge before pulling away, grinning slightly as he said, "All right, little brother, we should probably try to get some sleep."

"Yeah," Reed said, a smile hinting at comfort on his face as he moved away from Clay. "Gotta be rested for the all that _excitement_ during patrol duty tomorrow."

With one final affectionate nuzzle, Reed slowly stepped away from his Bigwings and walked back towards his bed. Once there, the younger Mudwing dropped to his knees, flopped down on his stomach, and then closed his eyes, curling up slightly. Clay followed Reed's lead, moving over to his own bed, taking one last glance over his sibling, and then turning and dropping onto his section of cushioned ground, his eyes pointed at his hut's wall, his gaze off in the distance.

 _It's okay._

 _It's not okay._

 _No, Reed's right. A new war—Moorhen won't let it happen._

 _Except that Moorhen went to war last time. Not to protect us, either, but to join with_ Blister, _to try to hold a share in the new Sandwing Kingdom. And then Burn came in and yanked us to her side—because she threatened us, and we couldn't say no._

 _But Burn is dead now, and we've had time to recover from the war. Everyone knows how powerful our tribe is, the sheer amount of soldiers who make up the Mud Kingdom. Attacking us would be a long, expensive, stupid thing to do—no one would enrage a tribe with more fighters than them._

 _Well, except for Blister. Who did it in the last war. And won._

 _But she had help—a dragon worth a thousand. And he's stopped fighting for her; moons, he's fighting_ against _her now._

 _Of course, there are a lot more dragons like him. She could always find someone to take his place._

Clay's eyes, he realized, were clenched tight. He sighed, trying to calm his irrationally-frightened mind.

 _Here's the thing: even if a new war starts, we'll have time to escape. To run, to betray our tribe and save our lives. There's always the Outclaws, after all_ — _we could go back to Asha, live and work with her. Hide from our tribe as they march to their slaughter._

Clay shook his head slightly, turning his body and wrapping his tail around himself.

 _Of course it would hurt to leave Moorhen... but my siblings are more important. Always. She'd understand, in any case—Moorhen has always done her best to protect her little siblings, to protect_ us _. Moorhen knows that brothers and sisters always come first, and that sometimes, there are decisions that us Bigwings have to make to keep them safe—even at the cost of our other loyalties._

 _Moorhen_ _would_ _understand_ — _that is, if anyone even realized we were gone. I mean, moons, what dragon would even notice if we left? No one in the entire world cares about our troop—and it's hard to blame them._

Despite everything, Clay relaxed enough to chuckle.

 _Why would_ anyone _care about some completely normal Mudwings stationed in the middle of nowhere?_

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, there is some stuff that needs to be said, and I suppose now is as good a time as any. Warning: Very minor spoilers incoming.  
**

 ** _TDAC_** **is a lot of dragons' stories, but it will almost always follow Clay's perspective. There are reasons for this, mostly because I thought having a one-perspective story would be more interesting than just writing a bunch of scenes for a bunch of different dragons. However, there was some narrative-breaking information given away early in the first edition of this story, so I'm going to repeat that here:  
**

 **Clay, obviously, is still alive. Glory and Starflight are also alive. Then we've got Sunny, who has a bit of a complicated story behind her existence, but who is indeed still alive. We're going to meet each and every one of them in time, so don't worry about that.**

 **...And then there's Tsunami.**

 **And I tried. I tried to twist things and save her, but I couldn't find a good way to do it. I just wasn't satisfied with any of the options I had; anything I could do felt like a cop out. The fact of the matter is that it is _almost_ _explicitly_ stated in the books that if Webs had not taken Tsunami's egg, the Seawing princess would have died. Webs, a _fugitive_ at the time of Tsunami's hatching, would have had no reason to even _consider_ taking the princess's egg in this AU. Therefore, Tsunami's short life ended as a crushed dragonet in the Seawing Hatchery.**

 ***Lowers head in respect for our beloved deceased Seawing princess, Tsunami.***

* * *

 **Update Log** **: Well, for starters, that A/N above here wasn't there before. It was quite a few chapters after this one. It was also shorter. I like my words. Other than _that_** **minor update...**

 **This chapter... I like it more than the previous one. A lot more. For a lot of reasons: I feel like it's more to-the-point, interesting, and engaging than chapter one (i.e. zero). Of course, that doesn't mean that the same kind of _stuff_ that happened in Morrowseer's chapter didn't have to happen here.**

 **The only real canonical error I had to deal with was the fairly minor question of if dragons can sweat—and since reptiles can't sweat and birds can't sweat, I doubt dragons can sweat either. Other than that, the edits mostly came down to pacing and detail. Again: The chapter was choppy and fast. I slowed it down. I added some more characterization and world-building, tried to make your heart race a little. Clay's dream ends differently than before, Reed and Clay's conversation develops differently as well _,_ and we've also got that little internal discussion at the end; all of these things are used as opportunities for me to reveal a little bit more about who these characters really are. ****There's not much more I can say here without defeating the purpose of telling a story, so I'll cut the Update Log now (told you they'd be short). Thanks for reading!**

* * *

 ** _The Revision Train has stopped here. Ahead may be redundancies and contradictions in the plot, along with generally-less-well-thought-out chapters. The engine hasn't brought its revisions to those lands yet, after all._**


	3. Part 1: Chapter 2

**A/N: Let me just say, before I begin, that I really, really appreciate and love all you reviewers and supporters. I swear that I read every single review that I get, even if I'm not the most responsive to them. Anyway, hang in there, all you people who want to know about this world: there's a couple more chapters of EXCITING, HIGH-OCTANE EXPOSITION left before the story really gets kick-started.**

* * *

Clay woke up that morning later than he normally did, but not so late that all his younger siblings were awake. Clay yawned and walked groggily outside of the small mud hut that he had lived in ever since he and his troop had been transferred south, away from his birthplace and even closer than they had been before to the Skywing-Mudwing border.

Reed was also up, and despite what he had said last night about Clay depriving him of sleep, he looked perfectly awake and alert. He winked at Clay as Clay came over.

"How are you, Bigwings?" he asked.

Clay shrugged. "I think I'm fine. Thanks for last night."

Reed smiled. "Don't thank me. It's what we do. We're a family."

Clay smiled back at his unquestioned second-in-command. Sure, Reed wasn't the second strongest Mudwing in the troop – Umber would take up that position. And Sora or even Pheasant could outsmart him on many occasions. But Reed had loyalty, drive, and a confident snarkiness that kept Clay's troop going no matter what they were going through. If Clay had died in the Sandwing War, he would at least have died feeling confident that Reed could keep leading his family and keep them safe.

Clay walked to the other sibling of his that was awake, Crane. The youngest of the troop, she was characterized by her kindness towards all dragons. This would have been an admirable trait in peacetime, but the Mudwing troop had grown up in a war. Crane was not one of the troop's good fighters, and she had given Clay's troop a few scares before the war had ended, including a time when a terrifying Icewing had almost killed her in combat. If Clay hadn't been there to slam into the Icewing and push her away from his sister, Crane would, no question, be dead right now. Crane smiled at her brother as he approached.

Clay had seen Pheasant, Sora, and Marsh asleep inside, and he looked around for his last brother, Umber. "Crane, do you know where Umber is?" he asked.

"Umber?" replied Crane. "He should be around here…" she said, looking around. "Um… oh, there he is!" The smaller Mudwing pointed towards the road that took the Mudwings from their abode to the ones of other troops. Umber, a big Mudwing, the fighter and the one full of determination and a "never quit!" attitude, was walking up the path, holding what looked like a scroll in his claws. He walked up to Clay.

"This is yours," he said, handing the scroll to Clay with something like bewilderment on his face. "Someone from the palace, I think, came here and told me to give this to my Bigwings."

Clay, curious, opened the scroll as his last three siblings walked out of their mud hut, yawning. There was Sora, a shy dragon when it came to conversations, but a dragon who knew how to fight and how to think. Often, Sora would stay up late with Pheasant, the other brainiac of the group, talking about puzzles and enigmas and how different the world would be if smart dragons ruled the world. Pheasant wasn't a clone of Sora, though. Pheasant couldn't fight anywhere near as well as Sora, but she made up for that by being the troop's medic, both physically and emotionally, during tough situations. Then there was Marsh, the heart of the troop along with Crane. He was idealistic and had often talked about how he hated fighting, and that if dragons could cool their thoughts for a few seconds, the world would be so much better.

They were Clay's troop. They were his family. And Clay would do anything for them.

Clay read the scroll aloud as his troop gathered around him. "Dear Bigwings of this troop," it began. "Important developments have arisen that could affect you and other dragons, including those in your troop, in dangerously negative ways. We plan to debrief you on these events and tell you what needs to be done in order to keep you and your troop safe. This event will be held at eleven in the morning, today, in your village square. We realize that work is especially important in this part of the kingdom, so we only require the Bigwings to attend. The rest of your troop can feel free to do their normal job. Signed, Queen Moorhen."

"Moorhen?" questioned Marsh. "What's so important that the queen herself would write to us and ask us to attend a meeting?" The use of the word "us" was not a mistake in Marsh's speech. Instead, it represented his – and his entire troop's – trust in their leader, their Bigwings, to represent them.

"Not sure," responded Clay, although he had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Clay and his family's job was to patrol near the edge of the Mudwing Kingdom, near the border of the Skywing Kingdom. Clay knew that bad things, caused always by Skywings, were happening around his home. There were rumors of Skywing attacks and even a few kidnappings, but Clay was worried that something much worse had happened between the Mudwings and the Skywings. Likely, Moorhen had wanted to warn the Mudwings to be careful because the Skywings were no longer friends.


	4. Part 1: Chapter 3

Reed had assured Clay that he'd be a good temporary Bigwings, and then, with a, "be careful," Clay watched him and the rest of his troop leave for their patrol. Clay, on the other claw, assembled with the rest of the local Bigwings - about five in total - in his village square. A Mudwing Clay had never seen before, who was rather large and wore an necklace with an amethyst fixed in the center to show that she came directly from Moorhen, stood on a makeshift stand in the middle of some other Mudwings Clay also didn't recognize. These dragons seemed to know the speaker, though, so Clay figured those dragons were her troop.

"Mudwings!" she started at the appointed time. "I thank you all for coming. My name is Dragonfly, and I work directly for Queen Moorhen. I've come today to tell you all some pressing news, straight from Her Majesty herself."

"Ever since Princess Burn was killed by her sister through trickery and deceit, we have been free from war. And to this, we should, in some form, show thanks towards Queen Blister. I come here today for two main reasons, the first of them involving the queen of the Sandwings."

"You all know, for certain, that the biggest threat to Blister's rightful reign is the Outclaws, the dangerous alliance between rebellious Sandwing criminals, the remains of the traitorous Talons of Peace, and other treacherous forces come together from various different kingdoms. The Outclaws promise a world of peace when Blister is overthrown, ruled by a new, elected Sandwing that will rule as her subjects wish, but let it be known that what the Outclaws truly work towards is a world of anarchy and chaos. Knowing this, you all should have no difficulty accepting the rule, proposed by Queen Blister to Queen Moorhen herself, that the Outclaws should, in no way, be supported. Instead, any Outclaw should be reported and turned into our queen for appropriate punishment. And, in support of this law, Moorhen and Blister have declared that any dragon supporting any member of the Outclaws through any means will also be subject to punishment by Her Majesty herself."

The immediate thought that ran through Clay's mind was, _That was it?_ Clay had been expecting news about fighting, or a new war, of at least something more important than, "Don't support your local Outclaws." Clay was pretty sure that was already a law, anyway. That being said, no dragon he knew really took it seriously, though.

Clay suddenly remembered Asha, the dragon that had mothered him when his real mother hadn't. She had been part of the Talons of Peace and, later, a member of the Outclaws. Every dragon around her seemed to know about her status, but no one had ever thought about turning her into Moorhen. In fact, Asha had simply walked out of the Mudwing Kingdom one day to personally join the fight against Blister's reign of oppression. No, in the Mud Kingdom, Outclaws were just seen as sadly misdirected freedom fighters. They were never seen as a real threat to the Mudwings, so the Mudwings never really took action against them.

As the tenseness in Clay's stomach left him, though, he realized that Dragonfly wasn't finished, because he heard Moorhen's representative say, "Of course, you all are smart enough to realize the threat the Outclaws pose and the actions that need to be taken against them. However, recall that I had _two_ points. This second piece of news is a bit more pressing. And it especially involves you dragons specifically, because of your proximity to the Skywing Kingdom. You see, relations between Mudwings and Skywings has deteriorated to dangerously low levels, and we no longer feel as if this area is completely safe."

 _Oh,_ thought Clay, his stomach dropping like a rock from the top of a cliff. _Crud._

"There have been violent incidents between Mudwings and Skywings near the border, some of which have resulted in causalities," Dragonfly continued. However, Dragonfly didn't make a motion to answer the real question on Clay's mind: How many of these "causalities" were really Scarlet taking Mudwings into her arena? Instead, the representative continued, "Queen Scarlet refuses to take any serious action against these incidents, so Queen Moorhen has planned to send reinforcements to this area to stabilize the situation. The first reinforcement, actually, consists of myself and the Mudwings who came with me - my troop. More waves of reinforcements will arrive periodically, their size depending on what the queen sees fit. However, Queen Moorhen wants to make it clear that we do _not_ want a war with the Skywings. Avoid any and all combat with Skywings, and stay within your patrol boundaries. That is all. If you need anything, feel free to talk with me. I am part of your village now." Dragonfly nodded, and stepped backwards of her stand and into her troop.

Murmurs surrounded Clay as the implications of what Dragonfly had said sunk in. A possibly imminent war with the Skywings instilled fear in quite a few dragons, Clay being one of them. And it wasn't like that was the only scary thing in Dragonfly's words. Getting attacked and kidnapped by Scarlet's troops could only lead to one thing: a trip to the horrifying Skywing arena, where there was no escape, except from death.

But, despite the general overcast of uneasiness, Clay didn't worry too much. He had confidence in his queen; after all, she had gotten him through one of the worst wars in dragon history. No, Clay didn't worry too much about possible trouble with the Skywings or any impending war because, like Reed had said the night before, it would all be okay. No dragons cared about his troop; Clay and his family were nobodies.

That is, Clay didn't worry until he saw Reed waiting for him at his hut. Clay's brother looked depressed, but that wasn't as worrying as a massive, bloody gash across Clay's brother's leg. As Clay gasped and stared and started running towards his brother, he realized something else: Reed was alone.


	5. Part 1: Chapter 4

"Reed!" screamed Clay as he continued to run towards his injured brother. "What happened to you?"

Reed half-winced, half-chuckled despairingly as he replied, softly, "This? This is nothing. I'm lucky I'm not dead."

Clay, now at his brother's side, had nothing to say but, "Reed, what happened? Where's the rest of the troop?"

Reed flinched, then said, "They were taken."

"What? By who?" responded Clay.

"Who do you think!?" Reed snapped back at Clay. "By the _Skywings_!" The younger Mudwing suddenly made a move, as if he was about to launch into the air and launch an assault on the Skywing Palace by himself, before he yelped in pain and grabbed his leg.

Clay turned his attention to Reed's leg. The wound was still bleeding a little, so Reed must have not thought it was too serious of an injury; otherwise, Clay's brother would have cauterized it with his fire. Sure, the fire would burn his leg, but a burned leg was better than a dead dragon. Still, Reed's injury required treatment, so Clay told his brother to stay put as he went inside his family's hut. He came out with some strong leaves that Pheasant kept around, which would work as bandages for Reed's leg.

Clay walked over to Reed, and noticed that his brother, of all dragons, was crying. "Clay, all of them are gone," he sobbed. "I thought I could lead the troop for one day, just _one_ day, but then those Skywings just appeared, and now everyone is with Scarlet." Reed turned his bloodshot eyes over to Clay, and Clay saw the fear in them. "She's sadistic, you know. She'll put everyone in her arena, just for kicks, and no one leaves there alive. They're all going to die, all of them, because… because of…" Reed stopped talking as another round of sobs overtook him.

Clay picked up some mud from the stream near his house, which would help treat Reed's wound, and walked over to his brother. The older Mudwing bent down and stared into his brother's eyes. "Reed," Clay said. "We don't know that Scarlet is planning to kill them. Not immediately, anyway. One of Moorhen's representatives is here, and maybe she can help us. I'm going to bandage you up before I let you run to her, though, so please sit still." Clay brought his brother in for a hug before he looked at Reed's leg. It really wasn't so bad. The wound was deceptively shallow, and if Reed took it easy and had the appropriate mud therapy it would heal in a matter of days, if not hours.

As Clay was tending to his brother's leg, Reed started murmuring, perhaps to Clay, perhaps to no one in particular: "We were in our area, they had no right…"

"Reed," said Clay, calmly, a completely different dragon than the panic-stricken one he had been last night. "I need to know everything."

Reed closed his eyes, took a breath, and started talking. "Okay, the troop and I were in our assigned patrol zones, just, you know, patrolling. Then we suddenly heard something rustling in the grass. Most of us thought it was a pig or something at first, but the rustling got closer and closer, and we started to get nervous. I told everyone to form up in battle position, and we got ready for whatever was going to rush us, and to our surprise three Seawings rushed out."

Reed was talking faster, more impassioned now, despite his injuries. "I don't really know who they were, but they seemed relieved to see us. They told us that Skywing soldiers were after them and that they were seeking refuge in the Mud Kingdom. I told them that their safety would be someone closer to Moorhen's job to decide, but I thought that there would be no harm in bringing the dragons with us into the kingdom, so I told them to follow us to the village. And that was when the Skywings appeared."

"I think there were five who came up to us, and their leader, a dragon that looked about our age, actually, demanded that we kill the Seawings on the spot," said Reed. Clay stopped bandaging his brother for second in confusion. Ever since the war had ended, Skywings held no jurisdiction over any dragon in the Mudwing Kingdom, except for the Skywings' royal envoys. And that protection offered by Moorhen extended to refugees from the Sky Kingdom. Why were the Skywings walking into the Mud Kingdom like they owned the place?

Reed affirmed his brother's confusion. "I knew they had no right to do that, and I told them. Their leader told me they didn't care, that the Seawings were spies, and that if we didn't kill them or hand them over there would be dire consequences. I didn't know what to say, but Umber, then Marsh, then Pheasant, then Sora, and then even Crane stepped up and basically told the Skywings that they didn't need to do what they said and that the only leaders they followed were Queen Moorhen and me, who I think they painted as their Bigwings to try and scare the Skywings a little."

"And then their leader must done something, a signal, perhaps, because suddenly Skywings jumped us from everywhere. I didn't know what was happening; all I knew was that my siblings were getting beaten down by the surprise attack. A Skywing jumped me and pushed me to the ground, but when I saw another Skywing knock Sora unconscious, something in me snapped and I managed to throw him off. But another Skywing jumped me and slashed my leg open, and I was falling to the ground when one of the Seawings rammed into both of us, knocking both of us apart and away from each other. He pushed me into the ditch where that big creek - you know the one; we pass it every day - runs through, and I think that Seawing started fighting that Skywing. I didn't know what the Seawing was doing at the time, but I think now that he wanted me to run back and get help."

Reed's leg was bandaged and the mud was in place. Reed continued his story as if in a trance, "I think the Seawing killed the Skywing that had attacked me, because I heard this awful scream that I knew was from a Skywing just after I had fallen into the creek. But then I heard the thrashing and noise of fighting die down, and I'm pretty sure that Seawing was killed." Reed took a deep breath. "Then they started looking for me."

"You know, Clay, that the creek I'm talking about has mud that is way deeper than it looks. I knew this, and I also knew that my leg was bleeding everywhere, so I submerged myself in mud and waited for my leg to heal to the point where I could do something other than just run in and get captured. But then the Skywings who attacked us came to the creek, and I had to duck my head down into the mud before they could see me."

"I could hear them, actually. The leader of the Skywings was barking a lot of orders, and the other Skywings certainly weren't trying to be quiet either. From what they said, they had killed all the Seawings and were planning to take our siblings to the Sky Kingdom. They were looking for me because they didn't want any trouble being organized by me in an attempt to save the rest of the troop. They looked for me, but when they couldn't find me, they got angry and started scorching the creek, trying to kill me. But I was down pretty deep in that mud, and the flames never reached all the way down to me. Eventually, the Skywings left; I'm pretty sure they think I'm dead. Afterwards, I crawled out of the mud and looked for some dragon, any dragon, but all I found were blood smears and signs of a fight. I knew I couldn't face that many Skywings by myself, and that's why I came here to get you. Because I thought you could do something."

Reed was looking at Clay with a mix of desperation and hope in his eyes. But Clay didn't really know what to do. At this point, the Skywings had probably disposed of any dead bodies and were taking the rest of the dragons straight to the Sky Kingdom. Even with the load of Mudwings they were carrying, Clay knew that Skywing soldiers would be too fast to overtake, and besides, he knew that Reed and him alone couldn't take on the amount of Skywings described.

"Clay?" asked Reed, with some hope, but not much. "What do we do?"

Clay closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "Like I said, we talk to Moorhen's representative, Dragonfly. She'll help us."

 _She has to help us_ , Clay thought to himself. _She has to._


	6. Part 1: Chapter 5

A lot of times, Reed would try to act with fortitude; he hardly ever showed any weakness to any dragon whose name wasn't Clay. Reed was second-in-command of Clay's troop, after all, and he took his position very seriously. But Reed wasn't trying to act like anything other than a hurt dragon right now. All he could do was limp, pathetically, next to Clay as the older Mudwing looked around his village for Moorhen's representative.

In the center of the village were three huts mainly made with hardened mud and clay: their government building, or "mini palace," their division commander's home, and a building where their logistics manager lived. These three huts were equally placed around the circumference of a cobblestone circle about half a mile in diameter. Here was where most of the town events, like festivals, war meetings, or mating nights would take place. Most Mudwings in the vicinity of the village's control lived a bit away from the town's center, however, so in between the "important" huts were dirt roads leading away in less-than-straight paths towards the outer reaches of the village. There lied the prey huts and where must of the soldiers lived. This layout made the whole village, from the air, look very similar to a brown-shaded neuron.

The village was still mostly empty; most of the dragons who Dragonfly had called away from their jobs had gone back to their work. There were a couple dragons still lurking around, likely the few that didn't have patrol duty due to reasons ranging from "he's good at math, so he should help with the infrastructure" to "he doesn't have a wing." Clay recognized most of them, vaguely, but he didn't see any trace of Dragonfly. Then Clay caught a glance of a large, more orange-ish brown Mudwing, and shouted out to him.

"Silt!" shouted Clay towards the large Mudwing. Silt was his division commander, and Clay had been under his command ever since he had transferred away from his home town down south, slightly after the war had ended. Silt, like all Mudwing division commanders, was like the Bigwings of Clay's entire village; if any dragon needed anything that couldn't be supplied by their own troop, they went to Silt.

Silt turned around, saw Reed, and cried out in concern, "Clay! Reed! What happened to you?"

"Long story," responded Clay. "But if you could tell us where Dragonfly went, that would be a great help to me and my brother."

Silt thought a bit, and then said, "I think my sister is showing her and her troop around the village. Follow me, and I'll take you to her. Reed, are you sure you can walk? You look seriously hurt."

"I'm fine," said Reed, despite the pain Clay knew he was feeling. "I can keep up with you."

Silt nodded. "Okay, then. Would you mind telling me what happened to you, Reed? And what it has to do with Dragonfly, of all dragons?"

Reed told Silt his story as the three dragons walked through the village towards the mini palace, as most Mudwings in Clay's village called it. While most of the structures in Clay's village were simple mud huts or holding pens for prey - even the two other "important" buildings were simply made - the mini palace was a beautiful building made from colored adobe, created by one of Moorhen's architects before the Sandwing War even started, back before Clay was born and back when a massive inter-tribal war was just a fantasy. No Mudwing lived there, but the Mudwings used the building for multiple purposes: a place for refugees to rest before they went farther into the kingdom, the place where any of the rare village-wide meetings were held, the specific place where Mudwings went for their mating sessions…

It was around noon, and some Mudwing troops were starting to come back from patrols to break for lunch at their homes. Even though the cooking was done outside the center of the village, the smell of roasted cow, sheep, and other animals filled the air, and it took Clay, the big eater of the troop, quite a bit more willpower than should have been necessary to think about his brother's plight and not about lunch.

The Mudwings eventually got to the mini palace and went inside. Clay had been old enough to mate for some time now, but for one reason or another he had never managed to actually make it to a mating session. Therefore, he had not been in the building but once, when Silt had gathered everyone and personally welcomed Clay and his family as new additions to their town. The inside, while nowhere near as big as an actual palace would be, had one of the most precious treasures in the Mudwing Kingdom. Illuminated by torches that were never allowed to go out, a large, gorgeous painting of a Mudwing and Skywing shooting flames toward the land together adorned the room. Clay thought he could recall someone telling him, long ago, that the image was depicting the Scorching, and that the picture was created by a talented Mudwing artist directly under Moorhen's commission.

Dragonfly and her siblings were inside and looking at the artwork while one of Silt's siblings talked about its history. Silt walked up to the group and whispered something to all of them. Dragonfly and a couple of dragons from her troop looked over at Clay and Reed in concern. Dragonfly looked back at Silt and his sister, and then walked towards Clay and his brother.

"You're having Skywing trouble?" asked Dragonfly with concern.

"I think it constitutes as more than trouble," said Reed. He then explained, once again, what had happened to the rest of their troop.

While Reed was talking, Dragonfly led the two Mudwing brothers out of the mini palace. By the time Reed was finished, the three dragons had moved outside, and Dragonfly had a worried expression plastered over her face. "This is _bad_ ," she said, nervously scratching her claws against the ground. "This doesn't count as a skirmish, not anymore. And Moorhen won't be able to cover it up, not with you," Dragonfly gestured at Reed as she said this, "as a witness. No, this is a full scale, unprecedented attack on a Mudwing troop."

Reed and Clay looked at each other, the two also nervous. "So, does… does that mean… war?" asked Clay, his shaking voice easily betraying his worry.

"Not yet," answered Dragonfly, distracted. "Not yet. If we can get your siblings back, Moorhen can peg this all on a misunderstanding, and there won't be a war. The problem, though, is that Scarlet probably doesn't care if she goes into another war. Based on the way the Skywings have been acting, Scarlet might not even mind another one, actually."

Dragonfly looked with complete seriousness at the two dragons. "You," she said in a sharp voice, gesturing again towards Reed, "How are your injuries, truly? If a fight broke out now, could you hold your own?"

"Uh, I think so," Reed responded. "The mud has helped. But, uh, don't attack me right now or anything."

"You must feel better," Clay murmured to his brother. "You're not all doom and gloom anymore. You're actually making jokes."

Dragonfly stared at the two brothers for a bit, then turned her head to the sky, thinking. When she finally spoke, she spoke slowly, without turning her head to the Mudwing brothers. "Okay, I think what I'm going to do is send you two to the Skywing Kingdom as ambassadors. I'll get Moorhen involved, but in the meantime I want you to demand that Scarlet let your siblings return to the Mudwing Kingdom. Threaten that if that doesn't happen, there's going to be war. And I am completely serious about that; there _will_ be war if she does not cooperate."

Dragonfly nodded to herself, as if she was confirming the value of the plan. Clay, however, had doubts. So, apparently, did Reed, who said, "Uh, what if Scarlet goes all psycho Skywing on us and, I don't know, imprisons us in her arena or something?"

Dragonfly didn't even blink, like she had anticipated this objection. "That's when we go to Plan B," she responded, simply.

"Uh, what's Plan B?" responded Reed. "Because I don't know if I like the sound of that."

Dragonfly smiled, but still didn't look the younger Mudwings in the eyes. "There's a couple of, well, more than a couple of, really, dragons in the Skywing Kingdom that don't like Scarlet very much. Let's just say that I have, well, _connections_ with a lot of them. If Scarlet begins to act hostile towards you, all you need to do is tell one of those dragons to get a message to me, and I'll get it, and I'll bring Moorhen over there herself if I have to. Let's see," Dragonfly's smile faded as she thought, "well, if you get imprisoned, your best bet is to talk to one of those guard dragons who secretly want Ruby as queen, so probably either Opal, Carnelian, or Peridot. Of course, if you're able, you can also talk to the Princess."

"Wait, Ruby?" asked Reed, confused.

Dragonfly actually chuckled through her thoughts. "No, not that princess. The Princess is just the code name of someone who's pretty high up in the Skywing hierarchy, but for her safety she doesn't reveal her true identity to the majority of the dragons she actually supports. I actually don't know much about her, but she's one of the biggest sources of information about the Skywing Kingdom that we have." Somehow, when Clay heard Dragonfly say "we," he knew that Dragonfly wasn't referring to the rest of Moorhen's court.

"You're referring to the Outclaws, aren't you?" asked Clay, quietly.

Dragonfly shrugged, finally turning and looking the two Mudwings in the eye. "What better way to hide than to do it in plain sight? And look, no matter how you feel about us, you have to admit that the idea of going into the Skywing Kingdom, with the only real defense of yours being the pretense of being of a Mudwing ambassador, does not exude high levels of safety. If I were you, I'd want a backup plan, and I have to say that having the Outclaws as your backup plan sounds pretty good to me. We haven't eluded Blister for all this time because of luck."

Clay looked at Reed, and Reed looked back and shrugged. "Clay, at this point I think that the longer Scarlet has our siblings, the higher the chance is that they won't get out of the kingdom alive. I think we should go there now, and this plan sounds pretty good to me. But the choice is up to you, Bigwings."

Clay sighed. And yesterday he had assured himself he wasn't going to get dragged into another war…


	7. Part 1: Chapter 6

**A/N: Man, I'm just flinging these chapters out, aren't I? Well, I'd like to admit that I completely type about a chapter or two a day, but that's nowhere near true. I've actually got, like, the _entire_ fanfic's rough draft already written out and on my hard drive. The rough draft still has to go through a lot of proofreading and editing, though, which is the main reason I don't just dump the entire fanfic on here and be done with it and instead only post about one or two chapters a day. So if you like this because it's constantly updated ******(I told you I read all my reviews, guest reviewer!)** , don't expect that consistency to start fading anytime soon.**

* * *

Well, at the very least, Dragonfly was right about one thing: going into the Skywing Kingdom with only a scroll to prove that they weren't intruders did not make Clay feel very confident about his safety. The fact that Reed kept looking over his shoulder mid-flight, as if he was sure they were about to be attacked, didn't help.

The flight to the Skywing Palace should have been relaxing, enjoyable even. There must have been some sort of recent chill spell, because the Claws of the Clouds Mountain Range's vegetation was starting to turn different shades of yellows and reds. With the river beneath them, the two Mudwings were in the middle of a painting, where different colors and different shades swirled together to create something breathtaking. It was so unlike the Mud Kingdom, where brown was the dominant color. But Clay couldn't appreciate this beauty, because he couldn't stop thinking about Scarlet.

Clay, despite having been in the Skywing Kingdom a few times during the Sandwing War, had never met Scarlet. But Clay had heard about her. About how she ruled with lies, with poison, and with fear. About how she threw any dragon that she took prisoner in her arena, where no dragon had escaped from, just for entertainment value. And about how she was more or less untouchable, not because of any of her own strength, but because she controlled, from what Clay had heard, a terrifying, invincible Skywing would could burn anything with a single touch.

Clay must have let his nervousness show, because Reed, who had been flying beside him, gravitated closer. Clay peeked at Reed's leg and noticed it still wasn't completely healed, but it would likely be by the time the Mudwings reached the Skywing Castle as long as mud, which had almost magical properties when it came to Mudwings, was kept on his wound.

Reed asked, "Nervous?"

"A bit," replied Clay. "You aren't?"

Reed laughed, but not because of amusement. "Oh, yeah, _Three Moons_ I'm nervous. From what I know, Scarlet is the exact opposite of trustworthy, and I can't help but feel that she'll end up killing us in some horrible way. And I'm worse off than you, you know; at least you've got the whole fireproof scale thing to surprise Scarlet with if she tries to do anything like sic her champion on us. But if that champion goes after me, I'm toast. Literally. You'll have to change my name to, like, Cinder."

Clay, despite everything, chuckled, and replied back, "Cinder? Really, Reed? Isn't that a girl's name?"

Reed and Clay started half-arguing, half-joking with each other in mid-air ("Cinder is _not_ a gender specific name!" Reed had replied indignantly), and the two temporarily forget about the danger they were flying into. Reed had a talent, that was certain. He was the joker of the troop, the one who could make the troop laugh after almost anything, and the one who could make the troop forget about their worries for just a few precious minutes.

The two Mudwings were bluntly reminded of their imminent peril when the Skywing castle came into view, and that was when Clay once again began to worry. Reed had brought up a good point: Clay's fireproof scales. But Clay couldn't see how being fireproof was going to help him against a group of attacking Skywings. Clay knew, having worked with some during the war, that Skywings could kill in _many_ more ways than just fire-breath.

Even Reed's comment about Clay at least standing a chance against the Skywing champion didn't sit well with him. Clay had never been to the Skywing Palace itself – he wasn't anywhere near important enough to do that – but he had known dragons who had seen the palace, been to arena battles, and watched the Skywing champion. The descriptions those dragons gave painted the champion as a cold-blooded, sociopathic monster who killed at Scarlet's whim. Clay figured a dragon like that would have more than one way to kill him, even with his fireproof scales.

As the two Mudwings flew closer to the castle, the mountains started rising higher and the foliage started disappearing. Clay started to see buildings in the mountains below that Clay recognized as guard posts, half-carved into and half-built out of the mountain they were on. Before long, a squadron of seven Skywings, flying up in a V formation, had met the two Mudwings mid-air.

Despite the world technically being at peace, the Skywings looked suspicious. "Mudwings!" yelled the Skywing in the front of the formation. "State your business! Why are you so close to the palace?"

Reed looked at his brother as Clay held out the scroll that had the Mudwing seal on it – the only thing between being received as guests and captured as prisoners, Clay reminded himself. "Uh, we're here as ambassadors for Moorhen. We need to talk about a group of Mudwings that a Skywing patrol took prisoner."

The squad of approaching Skywings appeared to relax, and the squad commander in front made some sort of gesture that led to most of the Skywings returning to their post. The squad commander and two others remained. "All right, Mudwings," the lead Skywing said, "We'll escort you to the palace."

The leader of the squadron, Clay presumed, flew in front of the Mudwings and started leading them towards Scarlet's palace. Her two squad mates took positions to the left and right of Clay and Reed, although soon one of the Skywings sped up and flew next to the squad leader, speaking softly. Clay didn't catch anything close to the whole conversation, although he could hear words and names like "Amethyst" and "unsure" and "Blitz" and some name that Clay could only hear the ending of: "-flare." The lead Skywing eventually shook her head, and whispered back a sentence that Clay definitely caught the name "Scarlet" from. Eventually, the lesser Skywing nodded to his leader and flew to the Mudwings' side to fill the open space he had left in their escort.

The lead Skywing kept the Mudwings flying in silence for a while, before she gave a little laugh, and said back to the two Mudwing brothers, "You know, we figured you were ambassadors, because if you were Outclaws you wouldn't have flown in plain sight. But we're nervous, because we expect that one day a group of Mudwings is going to come with a declaration of war, and I don't believe _anyone_ wants another war."

This statement shocked Clay. Weren't the Skywings the ones doing all the things that would cause the war? Clay looked over at his brother, who also seemed puzzled. Clay shook his head, thinking that he'd figure this problem later, and turned his attention towards landing properly on a Skywing Palace runway.


	8. Part 1: Chapter 7

**A/N: Lots of people have been asking about the other dragonets. I'm not going to give anything plot-related away except for the following fact: Glory, Starflight, and Sunny, along with quite a few members of the Talons that bit it in the actual books, are still alive, and we'll meet them all in time. Unfortunately, however, I couldn't save Tsunami from her watery death in a way that didn't feel like a cop out, so... yeah. Tsunami was killed before she even hatched. Sorry to anyone whose favorite dragonet was Tsunami. :(**

* * *

Clay, Reed, and the three Skywings walked from the small runway through the palace, and Clay found himself becoming increasingly surprised by the beauty of the palace, especially as they got closer to the throne room. Between the Skywing soldiers that stood at regular intervals, one could see gems and other sparkling minerals adorning the walls, giving the castle an almost prismatic feel. It was enough to make any dragon – or scavenger, for that matter – just want to reach out a take a bit of treasure for him or herself. Clay started mulling over how, as a lowly Mudwing soldier, he had hardly ever seen anything that anyone would consider treasure, not including the mural at his village, when the Skywing leading stopped in front of him.

"Peaksoarer, sir," said the squad commander respectfully to a rather large and almost blood red Skywing in front of her, "these Mudwings are here to see our queen. It is rather urgent, so they shouldn't be kept waiting."

The Skywing guard – Peaksoarer – nodded before quietly and quickly going behind a pair of large, diamond-encrusted doors to inquire about the Skywing Queen. A few moments later, he returned, and addressed Clay and Reed. "Her Majesty has accepted your request. Be respectful. Blitz, take your squadron and return to your post."

The Skywing who had brought the Mudwings in, Blitz, nodded and went back out the way the two Mudwings and their Skywing escorts had come in. Peaksoarer gestured Clay and Reed to follow.

Inside the doors, the two Mudwings were greeted with a hallway that led to _another_ set of doors, with two battle-ridden Skywings holding blackish silver spears, the like of which Clay had never seen before, guarding each side of the doors. Peaksoarer nodded at the one on the left, who nodded back.

Peaksoarer turned to Clay and Reed. "I meant what I said. Do not, under any circumstances, make me regret bringing you here by disrespecting the queen." Reed and Clay had just enough time to glance at each before Peaksoarer pushed open the door and said, "Your Majesty, the Mudwing ambassadors you requested."

Peaksoarer led Clay and Reed into the throne room. The first thing that took Clay's eye, of course, was Queen Scarlet of the Skywings.

To be honest, she wasn't extremely big, but that didn't stop her from being intimidating. Clay had seen bigger Skywings, but even so, the queen exuded a sort of power with her presence. This didn't surprise Clay - he had heard stories upon stories about how unnerving and commanding Scarlet's presence was - but there was something that did: the Skywing Queen was almost bare. The only thing she wore was a golden amulet with a large topaz, almost exactly matching the color of her eyes, embedded in the middle. Then Scarlet stepped forward and caught the light and Clay realized, with a small shock of horror, that what looked like gold had been melted into Scarlet's scales in several places: two separate parts of her chest, one part of her upper arms, a small bit on the base of her left wing, likely some more spots on her back and legs, and there was even some on part of her tail. This gave Scarlet a somewhat dazzling presence, one that was both grotesque and oddly beautiful at the same time. This, combined with the dominance the queen managed to admit, made Clay almost step back in shock. But, remembering what Peaksoarer had said, Clay, along with Reed and Peaksoarer, bowed low to the ground, and only afterwards did Clay lift his eyes up to get a better look at the room.

Along with Scarlet, two other dragons were in the room. One was Scarlet's last surviving daughter, Princess Ruby, who had deprived of all her sisters and aunts _and_ grandparents by Scarlet's mass murd- uh, mass _executions_. And the other dragon in the room was a male Skywing, no doubt Prince Vermillion, Scarlet's last surviving son, left alone after multiple Icewing assassination attacks had taken the rest of Scarlet's sons' lives in the final days of the Sandwing War. Clay recalled hearing that ever since the majority of Scarlet's children had been killed, Scarlet had kept her remaining two close. Clay couldn't help but notice that Vermillion looked kind of nervous and frustrated, like he had been on the wrong end of a losing argument, and that Scarlet looked confidant and pleased, as if she had been on the winning side of that same argument.

"Thank you, Peaksoarer," Scarlet said, sizing up the two Mudwings at her feet. "You can leave now. I will take care of our guests." Peaksoarer backed out of the room, and Clay heard the large doors shut behind him.

Clay hadn't noticed at first, because he had thought they were paintings or something, but after looking harder at the walls, he had discovered in horror that the wings of dragons were plastered there. What was even more frightening was that Scarlet had at least one pair of wings for every kind of dragon Clay had ever seen, including one slightly burnt pair from a Nightwing, it looked, pasted right above Scarlet's throne.

"So," started Scarlet cheerfully, "you're Mudwing ambassadors? Here on what purpose?"

It took a lot of effort for Clay to start talking and stop stammering. _Keep a grip on yourself,_ the Mudwing thought to himself, before saying, "We're here because of what we hope was an accident, a, uh, mistake."

"A mistake?" inquired Scarlet. There was something Clay noticed about her tone, like the conversation she was having was no more than a game, which deeply disturbed the Mudwing. "What mistake, may I ask?" Scarlet continued.

Clay hesitated, wondering what to say, when Reed spoke up. His shaking voice betrayed his anxiety as he stammered, "Uh, the rest of our family was taken prisoner after we refused to kill dragons that had committed no crimes - at least, ones that could be proven. We're here under Moorhen to take them back home."

Was it his imagination, or did Clay see Prince Vermillion wince, ever so slightly, during Reed's speech?

Scarlet certainly didn't pause. "Oh, those Mudwings? Three girls and two boys, right? I can't release them right now, but I assure you that I have certainly not done anything rash. They are perfectly safe."

"Wait, what?" stammered Clay in confusion. "They're safe, but you can't let them go?"

"Yes, yes," answered Scarlet as she waved her claw dismissively. "If you would be so kind as to stay here for a while, I could explain it to you in detail. I think it would be best if we discussed this situation over dinner. I hope you'll stay." The last sentence had not been phrased as a request, but rather as a command, and Clay felt a sinking sensation that he was walking into a trap.

But Scarlet was the only one who could release his siblings, and Clay felt that the only way to get her to do this would be to just play along. "Yes, that would be good, I think," he accepted.

Scarlet beamed, but Clay could feel falseness beneath it, and the Skywing Queen exclaimed, "All right then, I'll have Peaksoarer show you to a temporary guest room. Dinner is scheduled to be in three hours. Don't be late!"

And before they knew it, Clay and Reed were being pushed out of the throne room without their siblings and without any hope of returning home anytime soon.


	9. Part 1: Chapter 8

Clay and Reed were shown to their rooms, which were nice enough to not provide the dragons any discomfort, but not anything terribly nice. They were mainly just a stone room with a couple of soft lumps that were probably made of wool and that definitely functioned as beds. No mud, but Clay figured that was normal in the Skywing Kingdom.

Before they went to dinner, Reed pulled Clay over and talked to him in a very serious tone.

"Do you get the feeling something is, I don't know, off?" Reed asked. "Because there's something about Scarlet that makes me half expect her to come into this room at night and slit my throat, all the while cackling evilly."

Clay nodded. "I don't think Scarlet will murder us, necessarily," responded Clay, "but I do think that she isn't going to just hand over Umber and everyone else."

Reed, despite everything, smiled and joked, "I don't know, Clay. Couldn't you just see Scarlet sneaking into our room, with her claws sharpened and pointed towards our throats, laughing in this high pitched laugh as she slowly creeps over to us…"

Clay shoved his brother playfully. "Come on, Reed, let's not get on her bad side. Now, I'm hungry, so let's go to this dinner."

Reed put his head down and chuckled. "Of course you're hungry. When _aren't_ you?"

* * *

Peaksoarer led the two Mudwings to the dining hall, a huge room with beautiful crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Light poured in from enormous, cathedral-like windows. A long, stone table sat in the middle of the room, and two seats, which looked like they had been pulled out just for this occasion, had the Mudwing seal emblazed upon them. Clay and Reed sat down at those seats, and before long, Scarlet and her son and daughter joined them.

As did another dragon. This dragon was a Skywing, but she didn't look like any Skywing Clay had ever seen before. Instead of a dark, blood-like red, her scales were shaded with copper along with the red. Smoke rose from her body, seemed to rise from her very scales.

Reed breathed in beside Clay. "That's _her_ ," he whispered. "The Skywing Champion."

Clay looked back at the smoking Skywing. It was obviously the champion; she matched the physical descriptions perfectly. But he had never heard of Scarlet bringing her champion to a diplomatic meeting, even a casual one only held over dinner. Was Scarlet using her champion as an intimidation factor, to force the Mudwings to except whatever bargain she proposed? Was the queen keeping her champion close for her own safety? Or did Scarlet, for whatever reason, want to keep her champion under her supervision for as much time as possible?

This was confusing and all, but what was more unexplainable was the small, bewildering fact that despite obviously _being_ the Skywing champion, she looked _nothing_ like the Skywing champion. Her head was constantly down, as if she couldn't care less about the world around her, her posture was slumped like she had been repeatedly kicked to the ground and didn't feel like getting all the way back up, and even as she sat down at the table, not far from Clay, Clay couldn't seem to get a good look at her face.

Clay also noticed, as the Skywing champion sat down across from Reed, that she had a large scar running across her right side… _somehow_. How exactly could any dragon that wasn't fireproof even touch her, much less scar her? Maybe there had been a fireproof Mudwing in the arena, or something of the sort.

Scarlet had made it to the head of the table, but before she addressed the Mudwings, she turned and started talking to another dragon that had followed the royals in, although this one just appeared to be Scarlet's guard. Clay couldn't catch what the two were saying, but Clay couldn't help but notice the unorthodox spear Scarlet's guard was carrying. Clay had to think a bit before he recognized the design from the spears of the two dragons guarding the throne room earlier that day. Clay looked closer at the weapon, and saw that it was mostly colored silvery-black, was thin, and seemed rather roughly made, as if the creator had experienced difficulty forging it. Despite its slimness, though, the guard carrying it seemed to be experiencing difficulty holding the weapon, as if the material the spear was made from was exceptionally heavy. As a final detail, Clay saw the tip of the spear sparkle, and was taken back when he realized a diamond shard had been used as the spearhead.

Clay thought the spear seemed awfully impractical, and beyond that, expensive to make. There had to be something that made these spears useful despite their impractical appearance, because Clay didn't think Scarlet would equip her top guards with spears that performed below the quality of normal ones.

Scarlet eventually turned to Clay and Reed, exuberant as ever. "Ah, Mudwings! I never did get your names, did I?" half-asked, half-declared Scarlet cheerfully as she sat down at the head of the table, her guard stepping back to the door. The gold in her scales caught the light and shone as the queen said, "In fact, we kind of skimped on the whole introductions ordeal, didn't we?"

Scarlet looked at the two Mudwings expectantly, and the two awkwardly introduced themselves. Scarlet smiled at them, but Clay still couldn't shake the feeling that Scarlet was only acting. "Well," the Skywing Queen said, "I'm sure you know who I am. This dragon, if you didn't know," she said, gesturing towards Ruby, "is my last surviving daughter, Princess Ruby. This dragon, on my other side, is my last surviving son, Prince Vermillion." Scarlet gestured towards Vermillion, who still looked as though he was uncomfortable.

"And this," continued Scarlet, pointing towards her champion, "is my champion and adopted daughter, Peril." Peril slowly nodded, but still didn't look up.

"Of course," Scarlet continued, with a bit of disappointment in her voice, "she hasn't been as thrilling as she used to be ever since, well, her _incident_." Peril flinched and turned away from Scarlet, signaling that she didn't want to talk about whatever her "incident" was. Meanwhile, Clay couldn't wrap his head around the fact that this dragon, a dragon who looked only slightly older than him and displayed almost no confidence, was one of the most feared dragons in the entire world.

"I'm sure you want to discuss a lot with me," Scarlet smiled, "but I say we start dinner first. How about you?" And before Clay or Reed could answer, Skywings came in bearing all kinds of food: chicken, pigs, cows, sheep, fish, and other meats Clay had never seen before.

Scarlet insisted on serving herself first. It occurred to Clay that she was perhaps doing this to prove she had not poisoned anything. It also occurred to Clay that she was perhaps doing this to prove that she was the most important dragon in the area.

Clay knew he shouldn't eat anything until he had a good idea of what had happened to his siblings, but he couldn't help himself. Flying through half a kingdom had worn him out, and besides, the food was prepared with such perfection that Clay didn't want to stop eating once he had started.

Not much terribly exciting happened during dinner. Scarlet kept trying to engage the Mudwings in small talk, and eventually Reed forget his nervousness enough to start talking about where they had come from and other similar topics. He even made a couple jokes, including one that had elicited a laugh from Scarlet, a chuckle from both Ruby and Vermillion, and even a small smile, Clay noticed, from the guard in the back.

Clay said a couple things during dinner, but couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, and after a while Clay let his brother carry the conversation. Reed was going on a parallel to something Ruby had said, telling a story about the war, when Clay looked up and saw Peril, with her face up, staring at his brother. Clay was a bit surprised when he realized that Peril _had_ been looking at him and his brother, just when they weren't looking back. And the next second, Peril glanced over at Clay, and their eyes met, and Clay finally saw the champion's face.

The first thing that struck Clay was the color of Peril's eyes. They were blue, but not a shade of blue like the sea, like the kind he had seen in Seawings. Rather, they were like fire, the bluish-purple shade one sees at the bottom of a flame. The second thing that struck Clay was how, well, depressed she looked. He didn't understand; it didn't match the description of the Skywing he had heard from all sorts of dragons, including dragons he had learnt to trust with his life. The Skywing Champion was proud of what she did for Scarlet, and the glee she expressed during arena fights were, Clay had heard, a certain level of disturbing. And the final thing that struck Clay was how fast Peril looked away, almost as if she was scared of looking at him. Clay couldn't help looking at Peril periodically after that, but Peril kept her head down for the rest of the dinner, as far as Clay could tell.

Eventually, Reed managed to bring the conversation towards their missing siblings, and Scarlet nodded dismissively. "Yes, your siblings, I'm afraid I said I couldn't release them, correct?"

"I'm terribly sorry about that," Scarlet explained. "You see, in many of my subject's eyes, your siblings committed a crime. To these dragons, your siblings should be killed. However, I don't want to anger Moorhen, because even _I_ don't want another war. So what I'm going to do is keep them prisoner for a while to satisfy the dragons of my kingdom, and after they have served their time, I will release them."

It was a solid explanation at first glance: Skywings were known to be moody and violent. But some of the pieces just didn't fall into place. Like the comment Blitz had made about no one wanting a war; surely the Skywings realized that if they killed a group of Mudwing prisoners, war would certainly break out. And then there was another matter…

"How long, exactly, are our siblings going to be kept here?" asked Clay.

Scarlet responded with a shrug. "Oh, I'm not entirely sure, but I wouldn't think for more than two weeks. That shouldn't be a problem for you, correct? We'll provide you food and lodging during that time, so don't worry about that!"

Reed almost seemed convinced, despite the holes in what Scarlet had said, but Clay still had the feeling of being led into a trap as he accepted the Skywing Queen's invitation.

* * *

Back in their room, Reed yawned and stretched, readying himself for sleep. "You know, I was expecting worse," he said, sleepily.

"Yeah, I guess," replied Clay, "but don't you think everything about this is just, I don't know, kind of strange?"

Reed laid down on his side and adjusted himself so that he was comfortable. After a pause, Reed replied, "Yeah, I noticed that too. I don't think Scarlet's telling the whole truth, but I don't think she's killed our siblings or thrown them into the arena. Speaking of which, did you even get a look at the Skywing champion's face? I kept looking over at her, trying to figure her out, but I never really got anywhere."

"I got a glance at her face once," replied Clay, "but that's it. To be honest, she looked kind of sad."

Reed stared at the wall he was facing for a while before responding, "Three Moons, I'm so confused. The feared, heartless killer of the Skywings is _sad_?." And with that, after only a few more seconds of holding Clay's confused gaze, Reed slumped down, apparently done with thinking for tonight, and prepared for sleep.

Clay fell to the ground too, but couldn't stop wondering about everything strange going on. Where were his siblings, really? What was worrying Vermillion so much (That detail certainly hadn't escaped Clay)? And what was the story behind Peril, and why was she acting like she was? The thoughts bounced around in Clay's head until he finally fell asleep.


	10. Part 1: Chapter 9

Clay was bored. _Really_ bored. He didn't know what he was expecting, considering Scarlet had basically told him and his brother that they would have to simply sit there and wait for their siblings to be released, but Clay was pretty sure any amount of boredom he could have predicted would have been an understatement.

Sure, in the morning a more orange-colored-red dragon who had introduced himself as Peridot (something that made Clay feel better, since Dragonfly had implied that the two brothers could trust this Skywing) had said that they had free reign over a certain section of the castle, but that section of the castle was deceptively small. And, sure, there were the balconies scattered throughout this section of the Skywing castle overlooking views that were, frankly, absolutely breathtaking, but looking at scenery would only entertain Clay for so long. And Reed, after figuring out that Scarlet had nothing exciting planned for the two brothers, went back to sleep in Clay and his' room in order to let his leg finish healing, so Clay didn't have anyone to talk to, unless he considered a variety of grumpy Skywing guards an option, which the Mudwing really didn't.

Clay groaned and dropped his head on the guardrail that kept dragons from falling off the balcony he was on. He swung his tail back and forth as he wondered what he could possibly do to entertain himself. It didn't matter that the scenery in front of Clay was no less than majestic, with the autumn colors only adding to the beauty of the view. Clay felt like he had been in the palace forever – that it had been weeks, no, _months_ , since he had done anything more exciting than thinking.

Although, there were plenty of things to think about. Clay knew he wasn't the pinnacle of intellect, but he had grown up leading his siblings through a war, and Clay had been forced to pick some knowledge up in order to protect his troop. Clay had learned how to scan and assess an area for threats, he had learned how to fight and predict what a dragon was about to do next, and, somewhere along the way, Clay had learned how to read dragons - their emotions, their motives, and their alignments. When it came to math or science or history, Clay knew he wasn't smart. But Clay at least had been confident during the war about his practical intelligence, and now that intellect was giving him the only form of entertainment he had. Clay pondered mainly over Scarlet's true motive of keeping him and his brother here, because the Mudwing still couldn't believe that Scarlet had simply jailed his siblings, but the mysterious dragon of Peril occasionally occupied his thoughts as well.

Still, Clay would much rather be back at the Mud Kingdom, patrolling, because even though patrolling wasn't very exciting, either, at least Clay's brothers and sisters were there, and they could have conversations about simple, stupid things, the things that filled daily life. Here, there wasn't anything to talk about, and all of Clay's happy thoughts were overridden by worries and doubts. It was almost torture, not knowing his siblings' fate, and where they were and how they were being treated, every second of every day. In fact, Clay wasn't sure he could really take _two weeks_ of waiting for his siblings, because at this point, the amount of time he had been waiting for his siblings was almost crushing him, pulverizing him, splitting him apart...

And as far as Clay could estimate, it was only about one in the afternoon, the day after he and his brother had arrived.

 _Maybe_ Scarlet was trying to kill them with boredom, a method of killing that stood alongside suffocation and starvation as one of the most painful methods of murder.

Clay shook his head to rid the thoughts of death from his head. He and his brother would be fine, Clay told himself. He was starting to make up completely ridiculous fantasies at this point.

Clay paced back into the hall that had led him to the balcony. He thought he had heard Peridot say something about a library and a dragon named Osprey. Clay wasn't a big reader, and there were hardly any scrolls passed around to common Mudwing soldiers, anyway, but Clay figured that there was no time like the present to start.

Clay brought the directions Peridot had given him into his mind. Clay walked towards the library, turning and passing through hallways cut through some mountain's interior, the walls, ceiling, and floor almost completely made of ordinary stone. Clay was pretty sure he was halfway there before he noticed that the section of the palace he was in seemed warmer than the other parts he had come through. Clay was wondering why this was when he turned a corner and saw Peril, eyes diverted down, coming towards him.

Peril glanced her head up and stopped when she saw Clay. Quite simply, she looked like she expected Clay to move to the side so she could pass. But this dragon had mystified Clay during his thinking sessions on various balconies and in various hallways, and now here she was, standing in front of him, and Clay couldn't fight the instinct to at least talk to her.

"Oh, hello, uh, Peril, right?" Clay started, stammering a bit as he started realizing that he was trying to strike up a conversation the most dangerous dragon in the entire world. Three Moons, he _was_ desperately bored.

Clay _expected_ that Peril would unhappily mumble a hello and then give him a look that said, "Move to the side, I'm busy." But instead Peril blinked and didn't say anything, apparently shocked. She raised her head properly and looked at Clay, her eyes searching him, which made Clay a bit uncomfortable. She eventually asked, a lot more calmly than Clay had thought would happen, "Hello. You're Clay, correct? The Mudwing ambassador?"

Which confused Clay even more. His previous theory was that years of killing had turned Peril into a secluded social outcast. He figured that she'd try to avoid conversation and only mumble something to get Clay out her way, then march off grumpily like most Skywings. He didn't expect Peril to actually _talk back_.

Clay, unsure of where to take the conversation next, managed to say, "Yeah, uh, I saw you at dinner the other day, and you hardly said anything. I guess, well, I guess I was expecting something different from Scarlet's champion."

"What were you expecting?" Peril responded, sharply, looking straight at Clay. "A dragon straight from the gates of hell?" If Peril had phrased that sentence differently, it could have been a sarcastic joke, but the way that the Skywing said it, the way she looked at Clay, without a hint of a smile on her face, made the Mudwing sure she meant every word.

"Well, no, nothing that extreme," Clay replied, carefully. _Just because she's acting kind of nice doesn't mean she is_ , he reminded himself. "But I didn't expect you to be so, I don't know- " Not shy, she was talking to him right now. Reserved? Maybe, but Clay decided to be safe and finished with, "- quiet."

Peril looked taken back for just a moment – just one moment – but then she looked down again and shrugged. "I find it easier to be distant towards dragons, for my own sake. And just so you know, I wouldn't blame you if you _did_ think me a demon or a monster or something, so if that's what –"

"Oh, no!" interjected Clay, and Peril looked back up at him. Her eyes struck him again, and Clay backed away a little bit. He couldn't help comparing Peril's eyes to fire; there was something about them beyond the color, some aliveness in them, that gave them a sense of burning. It wasn't exactly comforting; Clay found them unnatural and unnerving. "I mean," Clay managed to continue, "I've been told a lot of things about you that made you _sound_ like a monster, but the thing is, I haven't _seen_ anything, personally, that makes you _look_ like a monster. I'm not going to judge you on hearsay, so no, I don't think you're a monster." Three Moons, that was an awfully nice thing for him to say, considering that about three-fourths of Clay - the smart three-fourths, likely - wanted to run very, very far away from Peril.

Right after Clay had finished, the Mudwing saw a strange emotion flash over Peril's face: something that looked like a mix between shock and, astonishingly, fear. The emotion was short lived, however, soon to be replaced by a flash of anger. "Well," snarled Peril, staring straight at Clay, "you haven't seen what I do in the arena." At this, the Skywing stepped around Clay and determinedly walked away from the Mudwing without looking back.

Clay was now incredibly confused. Sure, Peril was kind of grumpy and snippy, but most Skywings were like that. Clay actually got the sense that Peril was a lot more than she let on, but that being said, why was she so _different_ than what he had heard about her? Clay hadn't missed the undertones: when Peril had snapped at him about the arena, her tone had implied that she knew it was wrong and despised it. But every account, _every_ single account of Peril Clay had ever heard from _anyone_ had mentioned her absolute, unquestionable love for arena battling.

Nothing was adding up, and Clay found himself just standing in the hallway where Peril had left him. Scarlet had mentioned an "incident," but Clay didn't know what single incident could change a dragon _so much_. Clay had too many thoughts flying through his head, and he decided not to continue towards the library. He felt that as long as the mystery of the Skywing Champion was on his mind, he wouldn't be able to focus on a scroll, no matter how interesting.

Well, even though he was still just thinking, at least Clay wasn't bored anymore.


	11. Part 1: Chapter 10

Not much exciting happened at dinner that night. Scarlet acted like nothing in the world was wrong, Reed was glad to engage her in conversation, Ruby and Vermillion occasionally inputted something, and Clay and Peril just sort of sat there. Reed still couldn't seem to get any specifics about their siblings out of Scarlet, but the Skywing Queen kept assuring them that they were just fine.

At one point, however, a Skywing with a hastily bandaged wound on her head ran into the dining hall and requested Scarlet's attention immediately. Scarlet nodded, and the dragon said, "Your Majesty, Commander Bismuth speaking. We found an Outclaw formation flying south half an hour ago. We were unable to subdue them, and took heavy losses in the process of trying. Your Majesty, Thorn's daughter was with them, along with Cloudstriker" - at the mention of this name, Scarlet glared with such hatred that it actually scared Clay - "and..." Bismuth stopped and glanced towards Peril, and Scarlet nodded, seemingly understanding something Clay didn't.

"Find them," Scarlet had ordered. "Kill them. Run searches around the area, and stay alert."

Other than that bout of excitement, however, nothing that interesting happened until after dinner. Before going to bed, Reed had causally asked Clay if anything interesting had happened during his day. Clay had casually answered that nothing interesting had happened, except for his brief encounter with the Skywing Champion.

Reed had, not so casually, looked up at his brother. "You _talked_ with her?" he asked. "You do realize that she's, you know, a killer? What'd you talk about? 'Gee, how's the killing been going recently?'"

Clay, who had been looking away from his brother when he said that, tapped his talons against the floor, before stating, slowly, "You know, I couldn't see the heartless killer everyone says she is."

Reed looked at his brother, bemused. "Uh, Clay? I know I said this already, but you do realize that she's a professional _killer_ , don't you? I wouldn't let that image of her be distorted if I were you. I'm pretty sure she's ruthless and cutthroat; I kind of think the fact that she doesn't talk makes her _more_ terrifying."

Clay nodded. Reed was right, at least partially, and Clay knew it. And for now, Clay wasn't going to ignore Reed's advice, because even when they had talked, Peril had warned him that she was dangerous. And Clay wasn't going to take that warning lightly.

* * *

Clay's plan was to sleep in so he wouldn't have so much free time for him to do absolutely nothing. But, apparently, Clay's brain objected to this plan, and the Mudwing found himself waking up half an hour before dawn from a nightmare.

This one had been about Scarlet taking Clay to his siblings. Clay remembered following her down and down into the Skywing dungeons. Clay remembered that Scarlet had opened a door, but instead of his siblings rushing out to meet him, bones fell from inside, covering the floor, drowning him, and then Clay remembered there being skulls that resembled his brothers and his sisters, and they were laughing as Clay felt bones pushing him down and crushing him.

Clay pushed those terrifying thoughts from his head and turned his attention to his current state. It was too close to dawn, and Clay felt like there was no point in waking up Reed. Still, Clay had to stimulate his brain away from his nightmare somehow, so he left the room in order to walk around the palace.

Peridot was outside his room, likely guarding the two Mudwings. He was reading some scroll by the light of a candle, and seemed to be surprised to see Clay up so early. The dragon rolled up the scroll, and called out to Clay.

"Clay, what are you doing up so early?" Peridot asked.

"Just a bad dream," Clay responded. "I was just going on a walk to clear my head."

Peridot thought for a minute before nodding and settling back down to read his scroll. As Clay passed, he noticed that the scroll was not a Skywing or even a Nightwing made one, but one written by the Seawings. Clay couldn't recall if reading scrolls from Queen Coral was even legal here, but he figured that if Peridot really was an Outclaw, he would have no trouble breaking Scarlet's laws.

Clay expected an empty balcony at the end of his walk. He had discovered a lookout yesterday that had overlooked the path he had taken into the Skywing Kingdom, looking east to the Mudwing Kingdom. Clay had figured it would be both relaxing and reassuring to watch the sun come up from his home, so that was where he was headed.

At the most, Clay expected a guard posted near the balcony or some romantic Skywing to be his company. Clay didn't know a whole lot about Skywings, but from what he had heard and seen, Skywings weren't too sentimental about things like sunrises, so Clay wasn't really expecting any real company.

That was why Clay was a bit shocked when the balcony came into his vision, and on it was Peril, looking out over the landscape.

Something about the Skywing's posture told Clay that, while she wasn't forbidden to come here, there were _many_ more places than this that a certain dragon would prefer her to be. Clay hesitated a moment, remembering his brother's words last night along with his own worries, but then stepped forward towards the Skywing. Peril must have heard Clay's footsteps as he approached, because she looked over her shoulder at the Mudwing.

Lots of conflicting emotions flashed across her face - there was definitely surprise, there was a small amount of frustration, and there was what looked like the _slightest_ hint of happiness, too. Peril glanced down, and said, "Hello, Clay. I didn't know you were the kind of dragon who liked watching sunrises."

"I didn't think you were one either," responded Clay, still slightly confused by her presence.

"They calm me," Peril said quietly. "Sunrises, I mean."

Peril kept diverting eye contact, although Clay couldn't tell if it was because of shyness or because of a more purposeful aversion to him. Clay looked at the Skywing and realized that he felt the intense heat pouring from her body despite the fact he was still probably a couple yards away. The two just stood there, before Clay said the only thing that he could manage to expel: "You know, I don't get you."

Peril looked up at Clay. Clay looked into the flaming orbs that were Peril's eyes, and continued, "I've heard time and time again that you were some irredeemable monster. But I see you in person here, and you're just _not_."

Peril looked away. Clay was starting to wonder where she had developed the habit from, because the action certainly looked more habitual than purposeful. "I told you," she said, with a bit of irritation, "you haven't seen me in the arena…"

"But it's more than that," Clay interrupted. "I heard that you were, like, disturbingly happy when it came to killing. No offense. But yesterday, you mentioned the arena like, I don't know, like you're _forced_ to fight there, like you're doing the job no one else wants to do."

Peril had looked back at Clay while the Mudwing had spoken, and for once the Skywing held his gaze without hostility. Peril had a confused expression on her face, as if she had just been taught something and didn't understand it yet. And unlike the previous responses she gave, Peril seemed to have more trouble getting the response to Clay articulated.

"I mean, I guess I _was_ , but… that was before..." Peril trailed off, leaving Clay confused. Before _what_?

Suddenly Peril's expression changed, and a flash of fury overtook her. "You know, I don't get _you_ ," Peril retorted towards Clay. "You come here, from the middle of _nowhere_ , and you act… so much..."

Peril's voice had trailed off again, and her expression had been temporarily charged with sadness, before the irritation returned and she continued, "Why do you care about me, huh? Why do you care about the most hated dragon in the world?" Peril's voice increased in volume as she spoke, but Clay was shocked to see Peril's composure breaking. The Skywing champion was obviously _sad_.

Peril stood there, her stance demanding an answer despite the grief that filled it. It was a good question, Clay thought. Even now, part of his body still wanted to run screaming from the super-heated dragon. But as for the other part…

"Well, like my brother will tell you," said Clay, "I'm too nice." Now _there_ was a true statement; Clay couldn't bare to see any dragon in distress. "I saw you as a sad dragon, I guess, and I wanted to figure out why in order to make that sad dragon feel better."

Peril stared at Clay and backed away in horror, as if Clay had suddenly revealed a knife instead of saying that he wanted to not see her in depression. "You… you… _you_ …" she stammered, before suddenly yelling, "Look! Just stay away from me, okay!? Stop doing this to me!" Then the Skywing turned her head and bolted away from the Mudwing.

Clay found himself staring at where Peril had been standing, just wondering frantically about this girl. She _certainly_ didn't seem mentally stable. But, then again, he didn't know if that meant she had the mind of a merciless killer.

She had hinted about something that had seemed like it would be the key to the mystery Clay was facing - likely the same incident Scarlet had alluded to. Of course, there was the small problem that Peril just didn't seem to want to talk to Clay that made the mystery all the more difficult to solve.


	12. Part 1: Chapter 11

"I thought you were sleeping in," yawned Reed as Clay walked back into their room. Clay had thought his brother still asleep when he walked in, but apparently Reed just didn't want to get out of bed.

"That was the plan," said Clay as he walked into the room and fell over onto his bed. "Then I had a nightmare, so I went on a walk. Then I ran into Peril again."

"Which, I'm sure, helped you on your quest to avoid nightmares," Reed replied, not bothering to turn towards Clay.

"It was interesting, I'll give you that," Clay said, not knowing what else to respond with.

"Maybe you're, I dunno, attracted to heat or something, and that's why you keep running into her," Reed said tiredly, shifting a little bit, as Clay walked past him to his bed. Reed started chuckling, apparently amused at something, and muttered, "No, Clay, you're obviously attracted to _hot_ dragons. That's what's going on."

But Clay was too tired to really care about Reed's teasing. He and his brother had stayed up much later than they normally did back home, and then there had been Clay's nightmare, and Clay's bed was just so soft…

And before he knew it, Clay was asleep.

"Hey, sleepyhead," greeted Reed as Clay yawned and opened his eyes some time later. "I'll give you one thing: there sure isn't a lot to do in this castle."

"What time is it?" murmured Clay, not quite ready to wake up yet.

"I dunno. A couple hours before dusk, I think," responded Reed. "We got a note from Scarlet, by the way. And it wasn't an official dinner invite. Quite the opposite, actually."

Clay mumbled something that vaguely sounded like, "Read it." Reed opened the scroll from Scarlet and cleared his throat.

"All right, it says, 'Dear Mudwing Ambassadors, I am sorry for any obtrusive delay in your schedule your job here has caused. I'm sure you wish to discuss your current situation with me, but I will be gone today until late at night. So, unfortunately, we cannot have our usual discussion over dinner. Because of this, dinner tonight will be very informal. Come down whenever it suits you, and ask my servants to serve you whatever you wish. I assure you it is no trouble, especially for such honored guests. Signed, Queen Scarlet of the Skywings.'" Reed looked at Clay, eyes raised.

"Okay," responded Clay, rolling over onto his feet. Nothing seemed off, or at least more off than everything here already was, except for the slight fact that Scarlet wasn't in her own kingdom. "Are you hungry?"

"A bit," Reed shrugged. "You?"

Clay smiled. "I'm always hungry."

* * *

Peridot and Peaksoarer both escorted the Mudwings to dinner, unlike on previous nights when only one Skywing would do it. The dining hall was empty, but a Skywing servant was soon with the Mudwings at the banquet table, asking them what they would prefer to eat.

Clay and Reed had both ordered and were waiting for their food to arrive, just chit-chatting, when the banquet hall doors opened and in strode Peril. The Skywing looked at both Mudwings and made a sudden motion, as if she was about to jump back the way she came. But before she could do that, a Skywing was at her side, asking Peril what she wanted for dinner and leading her to the banquet table.

So Clay, Reed, and Peril all wound up at the same table as an extremely awkward silence emerged and then persisted. Clay was nervous, thinking that any sudden movement in Peril's direction would set her off again, so he tried his best to keep his eyes off Peril and only glance in her direction. Reed apparently wanted nothing to do with the champion, and kept glancing to the door where their food was supposed to come from, although he would sneak a peek at one of the two other dragons occasionally. And Peril, like normal, kept diverting her eyes from the two dragons. However, unlike normal, Clay found the Skywing glancing over at him on multiple occasions. Whenever their eyes met, Peril would still glance back down quickly, but Clay thought he saw some reluctance in that action now.

The incredibly awkward dinner would probably have remained incredibly awkward if not for the arrival of the food. The Skywings here insisted on preparing the food for their guests, even though Clay preferred raw meat every now and then, so when the meat the Skywing servants laid down in front of the dragons was a tan shade, Clay wasn't surprised. Interestingly, Peril's meat wasn't cooked or seasoned or anything when compared to the two Mudwings' food, but Clay had to remind himself that she would probably cook it, maybe even burn it while she brought it to her mouth.

The three dragons were all forced to look towards the center of the table, but no one seemed to want to be the one to take any food first. So the three dragons sat there for a minute, the atmosphere getting more uncomfortable by the second, and not because of the heat emanating from Peril.

Reed tried to break the brick wall of silence that confronted them, but only wound up stammering for a few seconds, reaching towards the food, then reaching back, before suddenly blurting, from nowhere, in a much louder voice than the situation demanded, "Three Moons, it's _boring_ around here!"

Reed winced back as soon as the words left his mouth, but Clay, perhaps due to the insane amount of uncomfortable he was, laughed suddenly and looked over to his brother. "What?" he half-laughed, half-asked incredibly. And from the corner of his eye, Clay could see Peril trying to hide a chuckle.

"Well, I just, uh," stammered Reed, blushing in embarrassment. "I mean, it is! And there's no mud anywhere, so I can't really relax. And there's hardly anything to actually _do_ , other than read those scrolls Scarlet gives us access to. But all the ones in the library we can go to are about Skywing laws and other seriously un-interesting stuff."

"Scarlet isn't the biggest advocate of reading," Peril inputted quietly. "I think most of the scrolls here are the ones she can't get rid of because of legal reasons or ones Vermillion makes her keep." She fought up a nervous smile, and added, "Of course, I know I whole lot about reading, because I'm able to do so much of it…"

After that, the tension was broken, at least partially. Peril still seemed kind of reluctant to speak to the two Mudwings, and Reed didn't seem super thrilled at conversing with Peril, but Clay was determined not to let his dinner fall back into the drowning awkwardness it had been in before.

"So, Peril," Clay asked after swallowing a mouthful of cooked chicken. The Skywing, who was still diverting her eyes from Clay and Reed a lot, but who wore a decidedly happier expression on her face, slowly looked up at Clay. "I was just wondering what you think Scarlet's up to now, why she's not here, I mean, because she wasn't very specific when she wrote to us."

Peril expression changed to one of thought before she stated, "I think she's on a diplomatic mission. I don't know if I can tell you a whole lot more about it, though." Peril held Clay's gaze for a bit before she pulled her eyes away. Clay kept thinking that Peril kept pulling her gaze away almost purposely, like the Skywing was afraid something bad would happen if she held her gaze on him for too long.

Reed suddenly looked up at Peril as if remembering something, and exclaimed, "Peril!" Peril glanced up at Reed as Clay's brother started to speak. Clay noticed something at this point: when Peril looked at Reed, the gaze in between the two was relatively emotionless. But whenever Peril looked at Clay, the Skywing's complexion was charged with all sorts of emotions, like she couldn't decide what to feel whenever she caught a glimpse of him. Clay didn't know what this meant, though, so he decided to just pay attention to Reed's speech.

"You're relatively high up in the Skywing hierarchy, aren't you?" Reed had asked, and Peril had nodded in response. Clay's brother continued, "Well, look. Scarlet hasn't been very specific with us about our siblings. Do you know any details about where they are, because like I said earlier, it isn't super entertaining here, and if we don't get back soon, there might be some problems in the Mudwing Kingdom."

Peril blinked and the happiness that had graced her composure for the most of the dinner faded. The ease that had been in her also left, and now she was acting more conflicted than Clay had ever seen her. "I... I don't know if I… if I should do that…" she managed. Reed looked confusedly at Clay. "I mean," Peril continued, looking down in thought instead of aversion, "I mean, I think you deserve to know, but…"

"If you could maybe just get a message to them, and tell them that we're here or something," Clay interjected, "that would be helpful, too."

Peril's head came up and stared at Clay, and slowly, the Skywing's expression turned angry. Peril snapped and turned back into the unstable dragon Clay had seen earlier as she yelled, "I can't help you, okay? Just stop! Leave me alone!" Peril kept staring directly into Clay's eyes as she said this, making the Mudwing feel as if the "you" was directed more at him than his brother.

At this, Peril leapt up and almost ran out the door without looking back. Reed fell back a little bit. "She's, uh, an interesting one," he said after a while.

Clay couldn't help but agree, and added, "I think it's me." Reed jerked his head towards Clay, and the older Mudwing continued, "She was fine when you said something about our siblings. But the second I spoke up about it, she got mad and left." Why, though?

Reed just stared, first at Clay, then at the table near where Peril had been sitting. "I don't get it," he finally said. "I just don't get it."

Clay shook his head. "Something happened to her, I think, and she seems awfully resistant to making acquaintances because of it." But there seemed to be more beyond that, because they had been talking all dinner without incident. It seemed like the more Clay kept talking to her, the more it seemed Peril was likely to run away.

Reed said the same thing that was on Clay's mind: "Yet I literally made an acquaintance with her over the past half hour. No, I think you were right the first time, Bigwings. I think it's you. I think she'll make acquaintances, but you two have talked too much, and she's starting to see you as a friend. And for some reason, Peril doesn't want any friends." Reed glanced at Clay, looking for approval. Clay had to admit that Reed's theory made a lot of sense.

Soon after this, the brothers decided that the episode had ruined whatever had remained of their appetite. They met Peridot and Peaksoarer outside the hall, and the two Skywings escorted the Mudwings to their room.

Once there, Peaksoarer left to go to whatever guard post he was manning that night, and Reed and Clay prepared for sleep. But before Clay had fallen onto his bed, he heard Peridot call him.

Clay walked over to the Skywing. "Clay," began Peridot, glancing around as if checking for something. "What time do you plan on getting up tomorrow?"

Clay thought for a second. Normally, back home, he would get up just after dawn. But today, with his half-day long nap, Clay thought he'd likely wake earlier than that.

"Around – probably before – dawn, I'd think," responded Clay.

"Good," the Skywing said. Then Peridot looked Clay in the eye, with an expression that told Clay that he should listen extremely attentively to everything the Skywing said afterwards. "Well, about an hour after sunrise," Peridot said, slowly and clearly, "the north balcony looks quite beautiful. I'd suggest going there, if you're awake." Peridot looked at him expectantly.

"Oh," said Clay, "um, okay, well, I think I'll go there. About an hour after sunrise, right?"

Peridot nodded and gave him a look that said, _Don't forget._

* * *

 **A/N: I have to admit, these past few chapters have been full of _a lot_ of build up. But next chapter, I promise, is when things are going to start to go down. Questions will be answered! Questions will be raised! The questions that will be raised will be answered in later chapters! So just bare with me for a little while longer.  
**


	13. Part 1: Chapter 12

Clay woke up the next day earlier than normal, as he expected. The Mudwing looked over at his brother, who was still asleep, and decided to leave him out of whatever was going on for now; after all, Peridot had specifically called Clay over, and not Reed. Clay shook himself until he was fully awake and walked out of his room.

Peridot was reading just outside of Clay's room. Peridot nodded at the Mudwing, asking, "Going to watch the sunrise?"

"Uh, yeah…" replied Clay. Peridot didn't make a move to get up and follow Clay to the balcony, so Clay, thinking it strange that he was going to the balcony without the dragon who had indirectly told him to go, asked, "Are you?"

Peridot chuckled a bit, turning back down to his scroll. "I don't have time for sunrises, between guard duty and, well, running messages everywhere. No, I'm going to sit right here until Peaksoarer comes to take my place."

And with that, Peridot started reading again, so Clay had no choice but to head towards the north balcony alone.

Clay arrived at the balcony earlier than he was supposed to, but he figured that any Skywings passing would just figure that he was wasting time away, staring at mountains. He certainly understood why Peridot had sent him here; the view was the complete opposite of what the Skywing had said, and it wasn't likely that anyone would come here for recreation. For some reason, the mountains didn't seem to catch the light in an appealing way, and even with the fall colors adorning them, the view wasn't anything remotely amazing.

Clay started thinking that maybe it wasn't a great idea coming to a secluded place in the Skywing Palace, especially when he was fairly certain something was wrong. He pictured an assassin dropping from the ceiling behind him, grabbing him around the neck, and then killing him. Clay shuddered, and tried to clear his thoughts, when a voice that was becoming all too familiar interrupted him.

"I'm sorry. You know, about last night."

Clay turned, less surprised than he should have been, and faced Peril. The Skywing tapped the ground with her talons. "And before that," she continued, "when I snapped at you on the other balcony. I'm sorry."

Clay stared at the dragon, who was, once again, not making eye contact. When she didn't continue speaking, he inquired, "So, you made Peridot send me out here so you could apologize?"

"No," answered Peril, eyes still down. "I had Peridot call you here so I could answer your brother's question from last night. There were too many dragons that could have listened in and got all of us in trouble if I had said anything at dinner." Peril closed her eyes and breathed in. "Your siblings, they aren't here."

Clay stared at Peril as the words sunk in. _Umber, Marsh, Pheasant, Sora, Crane, they're not here?_ Panic, confusion, and anger seeped into Clay. They weren't here!?

"Where are they!?" Clay snapped, causing Peril to look up in surprise. "What did Scarlet do with them!?"

Peril, despite her light surprise, didn't seem that deterred by Clay's outburst, and responded, "They've been given to the Nightwings."

 _Nightwings._

Clay felt his heart sink, and everything inside him shut down. Clay almost sunk to the floor, but caught himself on the railing.

 _Nightwings_. The dragons who had raided the rainforest, home of the peaceful Rainwings, and taken it over, killing who knew how many of the native dragons in the process and enslaving the rest. There had been Rainwing refugees, Clay remembered, who had come to the Mudwing Kingdom near the end of the war, and Clay had been shocked by the brutality of the stories he had heard from them. And now Clay's siblings were in the Nightwings' talons for who knew _what_ terrible purpose. To make things even worse, the Nightwings had cut off most of their diplomatic relations with other tribes extremely suddenly near the end of the Sandwing War, and hardly any tribe could negotiate with the Nightwings now. The tribe was surrounded in complete and utter secrecy.

Clay almost cried from the hopelessness of the situation.

"Why?" he managed, finally.

"I don't really know," Peril responded with empathy Clay wouldn't have known the dragon to possess a few days ago. "There was some sort of trade, I've heard. The Nightwings gave up some knowledge or something like that in return for their protection from Skywing attacks and, as a small bonus, your siblings. But I couldn't really tell you why the Nightwings wanted your siblings, though."

One look into Peril's eyes showed Clay she wasn't lying. Then Peril put her head down and said, in a lower voice, "I don't think the Nightwings intended to just take your siblings and kill them, so if it's any consolation, they're probably safe for now." Peril glanced around, and then said in the same tone, "Look, I think _you're_ the one in trouble. Well, you and your brother."

Peril came closer and whispered, "Scarlet doesn't want you to leave, and I'm not sure why, since she'll have a war on her hands if she doesn't let you go back to Moorhen. Even if you tell your queen that Scarlet traded away your siblings, Moorhen might still be able to stop this war. But if Scarlet keeps you here, there's no way Moorhen can avoid this war."

 _Great,_ thought Clay. _Everyone except Reed and I are prisoners of the Nightwings, and we're prisoners of the_ _ **Skywings**_ _. Fantastic._

"But here's the thing," Peril continued, "if Scarlet isn't going to let you go and instead has accepted a war, why aren't you in the arena? Scarlet doesn't keep prisoners of war. Part of me thinks that Scarlet's just toying with you, but the other part thinks that she's got something else devious planned for you, although I wouldn't have a clue about what it is."

Clay, quite frankly, didn't care to find out about whatever Scarlet had planned from him, because whatever it was, it could not possibly be anything good. Clay's mind ran, trying to think of possible solutions to his plight. "Do you think we could talk the queen out of this?" asked Clay, referring to Scarlet, all the while knowing that his proposal was not a very good one.

"You could try," was Peril's response, but it seemed half-hearted.

Clay stood up again and took a deep breath. There was still hope; he wished, maybe futilely, that Scarlet could be reasoned with. If not, there was always Dragonfly's route of escape. But before he turned to leave, Clay had to say some things to Peril.

"Hey," smiled Clay, "thank you."

Peril shrugged. "It's nothing. Like I said, I thought you should know what was going on with your siblings. It's just, I didn't really want to discuss it where others would hear, because that might lead to some problems." But Clay knew there was some other reason to the way Peril acted. If Peril was that worried about getting in trouble, she wouldn't have come and talked to Clay herself. She obviously had allies, like Peridot, who could have talked to him instead. Clay had started wondering if Peril, despite her aversion to him, actually trusted him more than his brother and wanted to talk to him alone. It would match Reed's theory from last night, at the very least.

Peril turned her eyes down and started to back away, but Clay called after her. "No, really, thank you." Peril looked back at Clay, and he continued, "It was brave of you to do that, but you did it, even when you knew it was what Scarlet wouldn't want you to do. So, thank you."

Clay had given his words as compliments, but Peril just stood there, staring at him, with sorrow creeping over her face. "Why…" was all she said as she shook her head, backing away, "Why are you so much like _him_?"

Peril paused for just a second, as if something was about to throw itself out of the Skywing, before Peril turned and fled, and Clay was left standing on the balcony alone.

* * *

" **WHAT!?** " Reed screamed. Clay winced, wondering if a Skywing guard was going to come in and ask what had just happened, and what his lie would be if one did.

When the door to their room didn't open, Clay lowered his voice and said, "Look, that's what Peril told me. Our siblings are in the Nightwing Kingdom."

Reed stared in complete shock at his brother. He started shaking his head, slowly at first, but with increased intensity as seconds flew by. "No," he murmured. "No. No, no…no…" Reed slumped down to the floor and dropped his face into his hands. "No…"

Reed looked up at his brother with a look of complete despair. "She couldn't… Scarlet… she _wouldn't_ …" And then suddenly Reed was shouting again. "SHE GAVE THEM AWAY!" he yelled in fury, standing up as if he was going to bolt towards Scarlet and attack her himself. "I TRUSTED HER! I GAVE HER MY TRUST, AND SHE **GAVE THEM AWAY**!" Reed screamed as he turned and angrily slammed his arm against the stone wall, before he, suddenly and shockingly, broke down into tears.

Clay had seen his brother cry two other times, which had been after Crane had almost been killed and after he had lost his siblings to Scarlet. But the first time, it had been from relief. This time, like last time, the tears came from misery.

"This is all because of me…" he wept quietly.

"Reed," Clay interjected into Reed's self-pity. "This is not your fault." Clay waited until his brother looked up at him. "This is _Scarlet's_ fault. She was behind the attack that led to our siblings getting captured. She was behind their transfer to the rainforest. She's the reason we didn't figure this out earlier. None of this is your fault. It's all because of Scarlet."

Reed sniveled, then looked up at his brother with a sad smile. "Always the optimist, even in the face of being in our enemy's fortress on the eve of a war, huh?"

Clay nudged his brother, a bit less than friendlily. "Reed, it isn't hopeless. We can always get out of here the way Dragonfly told us about."

But Reed disagreed, saying, "Not yet. We need to be absolutely sure that our siblings aren't here. No offense to Peril, but I can't completely trust her. So let's pry something out of Scarlet, and if it becomes obvious they aren't here, we'll try to get out of here with the Outclaws."

Clay nodded, knowing that running off now could lead to huge amounts of trouble, and thinking it best to at least try and talk his way out of his situation. "Okay," he responded to his brother. "Dinner's an hour before sundown."

Still, what would happen if Scarlet caught on to the two brothers? Would she throw them in the arena if she discovered that they knew their siblings weren't in the Sky Kingdom? Or was something else, something horrible, already in motion and spiraling towards the two brothers?


	14. Part 1: Chapter 13

The time before dinner was spent worrying, pacing, and hoping. One one claw, Clay couldn't have been happier when Peaksoarer finally came in and told the two Mudwings that it was time for them to eat. On the other, Clay was dreading even looking at Scarlet again, so much so that he almost didn't want to go with his escort towards the dining hall.

Peril, already at the table when the brothers walked in, looked up at the two Mudwings as they approached. "Hey," she greeted quietly, actually starting a casual conversation with Clay for a change.

"Hey," replied Clay as the two sat down. He flashed a smile at the Skywing, and was surprised to see her smile a bit back. Of course, Peril soon caught herself and started to look away.

Started. Then Scarlet, Ruby, and Vermillion walked in and directed Peril's attention towards them.

This was different than the first two nights the Mudwings had been in the Sky Kingdom. Scarlet had almost bounded in on those nights, but tonight she only walked in slowly, moving herself so that every piece of gold melted into her scales shined, viewing the Mudwings with some sort of contemplation, some sort of pleased grin across her face. Ruby seemed unchanged, as did her brother (of course, Clay wasn't sure if the worried look on Vermillion's face not changing was something to celebrate, especially now that he had an idea what it meant…).

And, continuing to contrast with the early nights at the Skywing Palace, three Skywings, not one, filed in after their queen. Two of them had the silvery-black spears from before. One of them took up a position behind Clay's side of the table, and another behind Peril's. The last Skywing was completely different.

He – a large dragon who moved without any visible emotion – had come in last. He was carrying some contraption Clay had never seen before on a sling worn across his back and under his wings. As the Skywing guard turned to shut the doors, Clay noticed a bundle of what looked like sticks attached to other side of the Skywing's sling. With another surprise, Clay saw the unmistakable shine of diamonds attached to one end of each stick, while what appeared to be large feathers were attached to the other. The male Skywing turned around again, and Clay almost gasped when he saw the arm brace on the Skywing's upper forearm: silver, with diamonds studded around it, with the Skywing seal emblazoned on the center; it represented the position of the Skywing Captain of the Guard. Clay found himself trying to get a better view at the Skywing's machine when Peril asked the question on Clay's mind.

"Mother, what is that?" the champion asked, looking both a bit put off and a bit confused as she gestured behind Scarlet and towards the Skywing guard, who was still standing near the doors Scarlet had come through.

"Peril, I'm glad you asked," said Scarlet in a voice that mixed elements of a condescending mother and the faux cheerful nature she had previously displayed. " _This_ ," Scarlet smirked, "is _quite_ the thrilling machine."

Scarlet waved her claw, and her Captain of the Guard at the door moved towards the table. "It's actually a device derived from something scavengers use to defend themselves, surprisingly enough, although while the ones scavengers have are small, weak, and can hardly scratch dragons, this model is _much_ more powerful and can _easily_ kill a dragon." Scarlet was broadcasting her voice, like she was announcing this amazing invention to a huge group of dragons, and not just, like, seven.

At that moment, the Skywing servants came out with the dragon's food. Scarlet stopped talking as her servants laid down food in front of the group, but it happened with a purpose that made Clay wonder if Scarlet had planned this entire spectacle. Clay also noticed that the things designated for Peril were adorned with black rocks of some sort. Clay vaguely remembered seeing them before, at the two previous dinners with Scarlet, although Peril hadn't had any with her food the night Clay and Reed had talked with her. Peril didn't seem to experience any surprise or confusion at their appearance, so Clay figured the appearance of the rocks were something normal.

"Excuse me," shouted Scarlet before all the servants had left, gesturing to a Skywing who only had a large metal plate left in his hands. "Could you please position that plate in an upright position on the end of the table? I need to demonstrate some new technology we've acquired."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the servant replied without hesitation.

"So, anyway," Scarlet continued as if she had never been interrupted. "I bet you're wondering what this does." She nodded towards her Captain of the Guard's machine. "Well, let me tell you. This is a machine that has the amazing capability to shoot projectiles from afar. Goldflare, if you please."

And then Scarlet pushed her chair to the side. The Skywing with the contraption walked to the head of the table where Scarlet had been previously. Clay got a good look at the machine then. It appeared to be made of mainly wood, although there was a metallic banding across the top of it where one of the diamond-tipped sticks was already fixed to the top by a taunt string.

The Skywing looked at the plate as if sizing it up and didn't do anything for a moment. Then, in one fluid motion, the Skywing pushed slightly off the ground into an upright position, flapping his wings in a way that made him hover just above the floor, his posture almost mimicking how scavengers stood. Clay heard a click as the Skywing brought his claw to his machine, and the contraption was released from the strap and cradled into the Skywing's two arms. The Skywing lifted the machine to his eyes, paused a second as he aimed, and then, still using his wings to hover upright above the ground, pulled some sort of trigger on the bottom of the machine that sent a loud snap through the room. The Skywing recoiled slightly, and the stick that had been on the machine flew off it with such speed that Clay could hardly follow. The projectile slammed into the plate, and despite the metal dish not appearing to be thin nor flimsy, the bolt tore through it as if it was made of paper. The projectile, which had lost most of its velocity when it had hit the dish, fell to the ground and slid to the wall across the room from Scarlet's Captain of the Guard a second later. The plate, following, also slammed into the wall across from the projectile's origin.

Clay did nothing but stare at the plate, all the way across the room from where it had been but five seconds ago. With that kind of power, his tough scales were nothing. The bolt would tear through them and impale the Mudwing like it had impaled the plate, and this thought made Clay almost sink down into complete fear.

The Skywing who had fired at the plate had hovered slightly backwards so that Scarlet could retake her place at the table. Clay saw the Skywing land on three legs, using his other claw to bring his weapon back to its strap. There was another click, and the Skywing put his last leg on the ground, stabilizing his balance.

"It's called a crossbow," Scarlet grinned, with such passion that Clay found himself petrified. What was Scarlet planning to do with something like this? And where had she gotten it from?

Fortunately for Clay, Scarlet seemed awfully happy to reveal these things. "This new invention," Scarlet said, speaking in a voice that was slow and direct, as if she did not want any dragon in range to misunderstand her, "was developed some time ago by the Nightwings, who obviously could not use their fire in the habitat that they occupy currently. And now, it has been given to us graciously by its inventors. Let me be the first to state the obvious: this machine offers infinite possibilities." Clay's heart fell. There was no doubt now: if the Nightwings, who preferred to work alone without any contact with the other tribes, had given something like _this_ to the Skywings, that meant the Skywings would have made some deal with the Nightwings. A deal involving the turnover of a group of captured Mudwings, for example.

Scarlet's voice addressed all in her presence, but her expression was directed, full of triumph, at her champion. "Infinite possibilities," Scarlet repeated, letting herself raise what could only be called a smirk to her face. " _Infinite_."

"Long range, quick, and relatively effortless attacks, rivaling the effectiveness of our fire breath, especially in the air," Scarlet started listing. "A much more efficient, effective, and safer way of disposing of criminals or other unwanteds when compared to killing them with our own talons. An intimidation factor, once other dragons learn we have the power to kill from such a distance."

While Scarlet had been talking, she had slowly made her way towards her champion. "And," Scarlet almost whispered, standing above Peril, "the bolts fly so fast that they could likely puncture even a super-heated dragon. And with our signature, completely heat resistant diamond tip, that 'likely' disappears from the question. Yes, Peril, we have a completely new heat resistant weapon." Clay imagined that if Peril didn't have fiery scales, Scarlet would be stroking her champion as she spoke, showing a faux display of affection. "That means no more spears made from the heavy, difficult to meld, fireproof steel. No more cumbersome, difficult to use fireproof weaponry. Can you see a use for that, Peril?"

Clay caught a glance at Peril, and saw fear overtaking her. But unlike the small bits of fear Peril had repeatedly displayed in Clay's presence, this was a primal kind of fear. The Skywing had started fearing for her life.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Peril managed in a shaky voice. "Yes, I can see the use."

Scarlet smirked in such an evil manner that it made Clay wonder why he and his brother had ever even trusted the queen partially. Scarlet walked back to her seat without saying anything. Of course, she didn't need to say anything. She was in control, the dominant, the dragon with every other dragon in her kingdom flailing about like puppets.

Scarlet didn't have to say, "Good."

* * *

Peril acted nervously throughout the entire rest of dinner, always glancing at the crossbow Scarlet had obtained from the Nightwings. Clay, however, was more focused on what he was going to say to Scarlet. At this point, Clay felt like their lives were in serious danger. The two Mudwing brothers were in the Skywing queen's guillotine, and Scarlet could drop the blade whenever she wanted. The only reason Clay wanted to at least try to reason with Scarlet is because he felt that if he didn't leave with her permission, he'd be the dragon responsible for another war.

Eventually, Peril, looking distraught, left the table, and Clay looked at his brother and used his body to ask, _Should we do it now?_

Reed gave a slight nod filled with worry, and then turned to Scarlet. "Your Majesty," he began, "your champion leaving has reminded us. When we left the Mud Kingdom, we were supposed to return after a week in the Sky Kingdom if our siblings could not be released. As it appears, our siblings will remain here for a longer time than that, so we should probably, uh, return…" Reed's voice faltered as Scarlet smiled bemusedly at him.

"Leaving so soon?" she asked, returning to her facade of politeness, obviously seeing right through Reed's hasty lie.

"Uh, yes, I think that would be best," replied Reed, clearly intimidated.

"Oh, you don't want to leave yet, do you?" Scarlet whipped her head back and grinned at the two Mudwings. "Not without your siblings."

"We'd prefer to stay," Clay lied, "but Moorhen might take, uh, drastic actions if we don't return to the kingdom."

"Oh, war?" Scarlet asked. She paused and allowed her grin to turn into a completely evil smirk. "I don't care about _war_. If Moorhen wants war, then fine." Scarlet paused and made sure she had the complete attention of the two Mudwings. Clay even thought he saw Scarlet leaning towards him and Reed. "Let. Her. _Have_. **_It_**."

Everything inside Clay shattered in panic. Scarlet didn't care about avoiding conflict anymore, she might not have ever cared about avoiding conflict, she had instead accepted the oncoming war. No, she didn't accept it, she was _prepared_ for it, especially with her new acquisition of the crossbow. She planned on fighting a war, and she planned on winning.

And the two Mudwing brothers had been the Skywings' first prisoners of war.

"I don't think you want to leave now," said Scarlet, not suggesting but commanding. The friendly mask was removed, and in front of Clay and Reed was a dragon who was juggling their lives in her hands and knew it. "After all, it would be such a shame to _lose_ you two, and who knows _what_ could happen to you outside of the castle?" The sentence was, in no subtle terms, Scarlet threatening their lives if they left the castle.

Scarlet smiled at the two Mudwings a little longer, then whispered, "Good night, Mudwings. I hope you understand you won't be going anywhere. Don't worry, though, because I have _big_ plans for you two." Then Scarlet backed away from the table and went out the doors she had come in from. Ruby gave the two Mudwings a small expression of what looked like sympathy, then followed her mother. Vermillion looked at the Mudwings, then where his mother had disappeared to, then back again, before he got up and hurried after the queen and princess. The three guards that came in with Scarlet followed Vermillion, leaving the two Mudwings alone at the table.

"We're going to die," Reed stated in terror, staring at where Scarlet had left.


	15. Part 1: Chapter 14

Clay's only thought as Peaksoarer escorted him to his room was, _We have to find Peridot and we have to get out of here_. But Peridot was nowhere to be seen, and his place as partner with Peaksoarer appeared to have been replaced by some new Skywing whose name and scales were both the same shade of some tone of darker red. Crimson? Probably. Clay had other things on his mind.

Reed appeared to have been taken completely out of things, but Clay figured he'd risk a question about Peridot. "Peaksoarer?" he asked. The male Skywing glanced down at him, showing Clay that he was listening. "Where's Peridot? Just curious."

Peaksoarer replied almost automatically, as if he knew that the question would come eventually. "He was transferred to some guard post in the south not more than four hours ago. Not entirely sure why Scarlet put him _there_ , since we're supposed to be all buddy-buddy with the Nightwings now." The Skywing said this grumpily, as if he didn't believe his own comments about the Nightwings. And Crimson apparently didn't believe Peaksoarer's statement either, because she snorted at his words.

"He's not here?" asked Clay in disbelief. If Peridot was gone, the two Mudwings' one lifeline was gone. Clay could already feel the hopelessness seeping into every pore in his body.

Peaksoarer looked ahead, presumably apathetic to Clay's plight. "No. I'm not quite sure he'll _ever_ come back, to be honest. The transfer was sudden, and Scarlet usually does these things to get rid of dragons she doesn't trust but doesn't want to get rid of, well, permanently."

Peridot wasn't here. He couldn't help the two Mudwings.

Reed was right. The two were going to die here.

* * *

Clay hung his head against the wall in distress. Reed had fallen into a depressed sleep, but Clay was still awake, thinking.

They were trapped. There was no _clear_ hope for them, with Peridot gone.

There was still hope, of course, but it was shrouded in fog. If Clay could find another one of the dragons Dragonfly had mentioned what seemed like an eternity ago, he and his brother could still escape. Who were they? Clay racked his brains, and recalled the names Carnelian and Opal. But Clay didn't know either of those Skywings, and he couldn't exactly go asking the Skywing guards about seemingly random Skywings, since he was quite sure that Scarlet would order her guards to keep a more strict hold around the two Mudwings by the next day.

Clay thought more. He was never the big thinker of his troop; that honor would clearly go to Pheasant or Sora. But right now, Clay _had_ to think. If a war started between Mudwings and Skywings, he'd be thrown into the arena, and then he'd die, because there was no escape from that place.

Actually, Clay realized, that wasn't true at all. Scarlet had more or less told the Mudwings that they were her prisoners, but she had also mentioned having "big plans" for the two. But Clay couldn't imagine what the Skywing Queen possibly could want from _him_. Perhaps Scarlet thought that they could supply her with information about Moorhen, since they were supposed to be ambassadors, so maybe Scarlet was planning to torture the two Mudwings until they gave up facts about the Mud Kingdom. But if that was the case, why hadn't they been sent into one of Scarlet's torture chambers right after dinner? Clay couldn't think of any good reason why Scarlet would keep the two brothers where they were for any other reason than Peril's: the Skywing Queen was toying with them. Whatever horrible plan Scarlet had in mind for the Mudwings, though, Clay knew he didn't want to be around for it.

Something was floating on the edges of Clay's memory. A name? No, an alias, or something of the sort. The memories slowly flowed back to Clay as the dragon concentrated, holding his head in his claws. Dragonfly had mentioned a dragon called the Princess, someone who was high up in the Skywing hierarchy, that could help them if need be. But Dragonfly hadn't been very specific beyond that, and other than the royal family, Clay didn't think he knew _any_ dragon high up in the Skywing hierarchy.

Now that he thought about it, Clay wasn't quite sure what even constituted as "high in the Skywing hierarchy," anyways. Did Scarlet even _have_ a council, like Moorhen? She seemed like the type to work alone, and even the royal family was relatively small nowadays. For a second Clay allowed himself to think that the Princess could maybe be Vermillion, who was obviously nervous about the upcoming war, but then Clay remembered Dragonfly specifically referring to the Princess as a "she."

And besides, if the transfer of Peridot was any indication, Scarlet was either cunning and could easily figure out who her enemies were or paranoid to the point of dislocating dragons because of intuitions. If there _was_ a Skywing council, it was likely a very flimsy institution. If a dragon were to remain high up in the Skywing hierarchy, that dragon would have to be one that Scarlet couldn't get rid of.

Clay blinked. Then his eyes snapped open as he lifted his head, his heart suddenly pounding. A dragon Scarlet couldn't get rid of... it _couldn't_ be... but it made sense... but _it couldn't be Peril_!

Peril was loyal to Scarlet. She wouldn't think of harming the dragon who had raised her in any way, shape, or form. At least, that was what other dragons had told Clay through their stories. But so far, the image of Peril created by the stories of others had been far from accurate. The real dragon that Clay had seen in the Sky Kingdom had been willing to go against Scarlet and give away important Skywing information, along with clearly disliking the way Scarlet was running her kingdom. Would that be enough for her to join the Outclaws? And Peril also had obvious connections with Peridot, a dragon Clay knew was an Outclaw. But what motivation would Peril have to go against not just Blister, but her mother, her queen, and one of Blister's most supportive allies? And if Peril was an Outclaw, wouldn't Scarlet have seen that something was wrong with her champion beyond "she's not as thrilling as she used to be?" Was Peril really an Outclaw, or was she just a dragon who disliked the life she was living with Scarlet and wanted to go against it, and a dragon who had just happened to have connections with a hidden Outclaw?

Clay thought about these things, frantically wondering. If Peril was this Princess, then the two brothers could still have a chance at escaping the Sky Kingdom. But Clay, despite his theory, couldn't image what would make Peril do something as drastic as turn from a bloodthirsty gladiator into a hidden, freedom-fighting Outclaw.

Except, maybe, because of the event both Scarlet and Peril had alluded to: the Skywing champion's mysterious "incident."

Clay looked at his brother, sleeping. Reed was twitching ever so slightly, likely in some dream, which Clay could only wish was one that would let his brother wake up feeling content rather than terrified. With that thought running through his head, Clay decided. For his siblings, he would talk to Peril tomorrow. He'd figure out what had caused Peril to become so different than what other dragons had said about her. And Clay would try to get Peril to reveal if she really was a dragon who could help the Mudwings escape from Scarlet's grasp. Even if Peril herself couldn't help him, Clay realized with a small bit of relief, then at least he could probably get Peril to point him towards either Carnelian or Opal.

Clay had a guess on where and when he could find the Skywing champion. But for now, he had to force himself to sleep.

Clay managed to sleep on and off throughout the night, tossing and turning, worrying about Scarlet and thinking about Peril, but Reed slept like a rock. It must have been some stress-related response, Clay thought. The older Mudwing finally decided to go to his destination when he estimated it was about an hour before sunrise. Carefully, as to not wake his brother, Clay pushed open the door and went outside.

Peaksoarer was guarding Clay's door, and looked at Clay as he approached. The Skywing was holding a normal wooden spear, and kept tapping his talons on it, as if constantly in thought. "Where are you going?" he asked, seemingly distracted.

"I was just going to go to a balcony here and try and clear my thoughts. That's all," Clay assured Peaksoarer.

Clay had been sure Peaksoarer would at least question him further, but the Skywing just nodded. Clay listened to the rap of Peaksoarer's talons as the Mudwing walked past the Skywing. For some reason, the noise calmed him, ever so slightly.


	16. Part 1: Chapter 15

**A/N: Well, this went up _way_ later than it was supposed to. Oops. (Hey, this chapter is long and it took much longer to edit than I expected. And _then_ my wireless crashed.)**

 **Anyway, now that I'm in Author's Note Land, I think now would be a good time to respond to Mweepinc and mention that I _have_ read _Escaping Peril,_ and that I _have_ incorporated elements of it into this plot, and that some of those elements are quite spoilerific. They won't show up quite yet, but just as a disclaimer that really should have been given earlier: this fic will eventually contain spoilers for _Escaping Peril.  
_**

* * *

Clay had been right. Peril was at the eastern balcony, just like she had been the second time they had talked, waiting for the sun to come up. She was rolling a stone back and forth on the railing in front of her, swaying her tail with the stone's movements, appearing to be deep in thought, and didn't notice Clay approach.

Clay had no idea how to start the conversation. _Hey, Peril, are you a secret member of the Outclaws?_ was probably _not_ a good approach. Clay decided to work his way into the subject, and breathed in deeply, before calling out, "Peril."

Peril looked in Clay's direction, startled. "Clay?" she asked, looking at the Mudwing. "How did you get here? I heard that Scarlet had established a more strict schedule, to prevent you from wandering around the castle anymore."

That was... confusing. "Peaksoarer just let me go," Clay replied, wondering if Peaksoarer had just disobeyed Scarlet, and why if he had. "I mean, I was expecting some trouble, but he just didn't give me any." Before Peril could respond to him, however, Clay decided to move away from this topic and kick start what he really wanted to talk about before Peril decided to run from Clay again. "But hey, Peril? Look, I… I really need to talk with you."

Peril looked at Clay a bit suspiciously, but didn't object as the Mudwing moved closer. Clay could feel the heat being released from her scales from where he stood, still a good couple of yards away. Clay reminded himself that Peril didn't know about his fireproof scales and would attempt to keep him away from her, at least physically. Clay managed to catch Peril's eyes as he looked at her, and for some reason, her eyes didn't make him uncomfortable anymore. Sure, they still seemed a bit unnatural, but the way they burned didn't seem to represent Peril's alleged insatiable need for destruction anymore. Now they just seemed another strange feature of the mysterious dragon.

As Clay looked, and Peril looked back, everything Clay had earlier thought would be appropriate to say to Peril left him, leaving nothing but a big, empty void in his mind. Therefore, all that came out of Clay's mouth was the phrase, repeated from days past: "I don't get you, Peril."

Peril grimaced a little and looked down as Clay continued. "They say you're a killer, but you obviously don't like fighting in the arena. They say you'd lay down your life for Scarlet, yet she had to threaten you with that new weapon of hers to affirm her dominance, which makes me think she doesn't trust you. The image I had of you before I came here and the image that I've created of you while I'm here don't match, and I can't figure out why, Peril. I don't _understand_ why."

Nervousness and the aversion to talk crossed Peril's face, and if Clay let her be, he was sure she would wind up yelling something vague about leaving her alone before fleeing. But Clay couldn't afford that right now. "Look, Peril, I need help, and I think you're the one who can give it," Clay almost begged, hoping to dissuade Peril from leaving. Peril only looked at Clay with the nervous aversion that was so familiar.

Peril _wanted_ to leave; Clay was sure. But she didn't, and simply stood there, her breaths slowly getting deeper, likely as the Skywing tried to calm herself. Eventually, Peril said, almost in a whisper, "You're so like him, you know? Like…" Peril stopped and looked away, and Clay saw a flash of anger cross her face along with sorrow before she started her sentence over. "You remind me of him. The Nightwing. _Obsidian_."

Hope flashed through Clay. Peril hadn't run away. She was talking back to him about herself, breaking away from her shell.

"He was brought here after his tribe attacked the Rainwings and took over the rainforest, about when the Nightwings cut off their communications with other tribes," Peril explained, still looking over the balcony. "He was pretty vague on why he was in the Sky Kingdom and how he got captured, but he gave me the sense that he was banished from his tribe and fled into the Sky Kingdom to escape."

That seemed strange. Nightwings were known for being incredibly protective of their numbers. According to what Clay was taught, a Nightwing would have to do something really, _really_ bad in order to get banished from the tribe.

Peril tossed her stone she had been rolling around off the balcony before turning to Clay and continuing, "Scarlet brought him into the arena, like she did and still does with all her prisoners. He was quite skilled, almost as if he had been trained for a situation like the one he was in, and killed all of his opponents with displays of incredible strength. But… but there was something else important about him, at least to me."

Peril's speech stopped for a second, and then she continued, "I'd never seen a Nightwing before that, but I had heard about everything they could do, you know, mind reading and future sight. So I went to look at him when he was first brought here, and instead of shying away in fear like every other prisoner did, he just looked back at me like I was simply some curious dragon.

"I started talking to him, and for once in my life, someone started talking back. I told him that I hoped he had good luck in the arena, and he wished me the same. I asked him, a little taken aback, about where he came from, and he told me a little about the new Nightwing Kingdom, and then he asked about the Skywing Kingdom. I told him about myself and Queen Scarlet and the way the arena system worked and all sorts of stuff like that. Before I knew it, hours had passed and Scarlet was calling for me. And I remember, when I left, he called after me, 'Please, come back and talk to me later!' And I agreed.

"Even if he hadn't yelled, though, I would have still come back," Peril reflected. "I'd had very few dragons bark anything at me that wasn't an order. Even now, most dragons hardly talk to me if they can help it. That's why I was so surprised when we first met and you struck up a conversation. Because no one wants to talk with a murderer."

Clay had noticed a hint of sadness hanging over everything Peril said. And Clay had a good guess about why, considering that this Nightwing had been put in the arena, where Peril reigned as queen.

"So, I came back," Peril continued after a moment that Clay guessed was used as a regaining of composure. That being said, the Skywing didn't seem to be frightened of her story anymore, and instead seemed determined to tell it. Clay wondered if Peril had ever told anyone, except for maybe Scarlet, about this. "I came back," Peril repeated, "and we talked. It was dusk, I think, when I arrived, and when I left it had to have been at least midnight. And we kept talking, day after day after day, and, slowly, as we talked and talked, I started to change."

She paused. "Clay, he made me feel things I'd never felt before," she whispered, although it was directed almost as much to herself as to Clay. "He talked about the rest of the world, and I felt curious – for the first time – about what was outside the Skywing Kingdom. He talked about the war, and I started to wonder why I was helping prolong it. He talked about other dragons, like Nightwings from his kingdom, and about how they cared for each other, how they helped each other in times of difficulty, how they fell in love… And I wanted to feel that feeling too. Obsidian told me that love was a hard thing to explain, but eventually I knew I understood what he was talking about, because eventually I knew that _I_ had fallen in love with him."

Her voice low, Peril continued. "I kept visiting him. I visited him too often, and Scarlet got suspicious. But I didn't care. I guess, in a way, I was drunk. I didn't think clearly then. We had this plan where I could burn his chains away, and we could run away and live away from any queen, where we could be happy. We didn't need to touch; Obsidian convinced me that there other ways to show affection that didn't involve contact. I didn't accept the plan at first, but no matter what my worry was, Obsidian always seemed to have an answer, and I slowly began to think that just maybe we could run away from Scarlet and we could both start everything over. He convinced me that nothing could come between us, and that he was in love with me, and I _knew_ that I was in love with him."

Peril had stayed relatively unemotional throughout her story, but now Clay could see intense depression flow through her. "He gave me hope, Clay," Peril sniffed as her voice started to crack. "The words he said, and the way he said them, made me so _sure_ that I could be more, so much more than I had been before."

At this, Peril sniffed and Clay was sure she was going to start crying. But she stopped herself, and Clay wasn't too surprised to see what could only be classified as rage filled her composure. Clay could see where the story was going. Likely, Scarlet had found out about the two dragons and forced Peril to kill Obsidian, and that was why Scarlet had earned the mistrust of her champion, even to the point where Peril would join the Outclaws and work against her. And the reason why Peril didn't want to talk with other dragons could only be because Peril didn't want a similar thing to happen to another dragon she started caring about.

Sure enough, Peril's next sentence strengthened Clay's theory. "Like I said, though, I was being foolish, stupid even. Scarlet found out about us and decided the best way to remedy the situation was to put Obsidian against me. He had already made it to that point in the arena, anyway, so it wasn't like Scarlet's decision was unexpected.

"We went into the arena, where I didn't want to kill him, but I didn't know what else to do. Obsidian and I sort of circled around each other for a while, and I occasionally attacked him, but in a way where he could easily dodge, and we just talked quietly and tried to figure out a way to get him out safely. He had plans, but all of them involved slaughtering not only the guards in the arena, but possibly the royal family and any spectators in our way. And I told him that his plans were wrong, and that I didn't know if I could bring myself to kill my adoptive mother, much less innocent civilians.

"I was a monster back then, Clay," Peril said solemnly. "But Obsidian had changed me. I didn't _want_ to kill dragons anymore; I wanted to change to a better dragon. And when Obsidian starting telling me to attack other dragons, dragons that had done nothing wrong, I felt confused, because he was acting so unlike himself. He had always assured me that any dragon could change, and told me that all killing was bad, and then he went back on all he had said and tried to use me like Scarlet had. Clay, I was confused, and I just… I just…" Peril's resolve was wavering, and she was slowly getting closer to tears. "I just couldn't do what he wanted.

"I told him that, and I remember what he did next. I remember him glaring at me, as if he was frustrated and annoyed. And he said, 'You're impossible, Peril.'"

The almost crying dragon was once again filled with rage, and she continued with newfound passion, "All I could ask was, 'What?'"

"And he kept glaring at me, and he said, hatefully, 'You're impossible. You'll deny it, but even though you're more powerful than her by far, Scarlet has you completely under her claws. I guess I hadn't come here expecting anything different, but I thought for the smallest time that someone else could control you, and that I had managed it. But I guess not, you're just too loyal to your _precious_ queen.'"

Peril had recalled the conversation with something between anguish and fury, and Clay found himself a bit shocked. Peril's story had taken a drastic turn from its logical conclusion, and things just got worse as Peril continued: "He was being hurtful, and knew it. He kept attacking me with his words, and for once in my life every strike landed. He told me that when he first came here, he had just seen a powerful dragon that could aid in an escape and had decided to try his hand at manipulation. He told me that he had known all along that I couldn't really be turned away from Scarlet, because I was too weak to go against her. And I remember getting more confused and more distressed, and I remember that he just wouldn't let up."

Peril _was_ crying now, softly, her tears turning into steam the second they hit her scales, but in between the crying came angry expressions that Clay imagined had been locked away for years. "He told me that he'd never loved me!" Peril cried with wrath, "That he'd never felt anything close to love for me! And then, as if that wasn't enough, he yelled that no one could ever love me, not just because I was a physical freak, but because I was a completely immoral monster as well! I was crying; I was yelling back that _I_ had loved him, that I _still_ loved him, and that I couldn't understand why he was saying these things, and all Obsidian did was laugh. He said that it didn't matter what I felt, because no one would ever return my feelings. He called me worthless. He called me a demon. He called me a mistake. And I don't know which one hurt more."

Peril put her head down, sniffling, trying to regain herself before she continued. She eventually stammered out, her voice shaking, "But... he… he was right. I... I know that now. I _was_ a monster. But still, I had… I really had loved him. To hear Obsidian say those things to me just ripped me apart. But that didn't destroy me. The thing that absolutely destroyed me is what he did next."

Peril paused and sniveled a couple times, before her speech returned with force for one last point. "He threw himself on me," she stated, the force in her voice quickly breaking apart after the one sentence. "He _killed_ himself, using my body, as if to prove his point. I tried to throw him off, but he fought to stay on top of me, and then the pain got to him and he started screaming, and I started screaming, but for a different reason, and soon the dragon… the dragon I loved was dead."

Peril finally broke down at this point, throwing her head down and crying softly. Clay stood there, watching the Skywing cry, wanting desperately to comfort her. The things the Nightwing had done, even if they had been done to what amounted to a psychotic gladiator, seemed awful. Playing with another's heart like it was a toy simply wasn't right, no matter whose heart it was.

 _I'm fireproof_ , Clay thought, suddenly. _I could walk up to her, comfort her, hold her claw or something…but, do I want to? Do I want to give away my biggest secret to her?_

Clay stepped forward ever so slightly, and Peril saw and stopped crying, trying to regain herself. "No," Peril replied to Clay's movements, making the Mudwing pause, "Listen to me. I never felt anything like what I felt with him afterwards. Never. I never _let_ myself. But then one dragon became an exception." Peril looked straight into Clay's eyes, a hint of her familiar fear mixing with the sorrow and anger that dominated her face. "You."

Nuclear explosions wouldn't be invented in Pyrrhia for centuries, if they ever were, but what happened in Clay's mind right after Peril finished was pretty close to one. _Peril_ was in love with _him_!? Clay thought about it, and realized that it actually explained some things. Her nervousness around him that hadn't been as present with Reed, and the fact he and he alone could get Peril to open up all the way to her core. But Clay realized that he didn't know what to think about Peril's confession. He had spent so long trying to figure Peril out that he had never even bothered to think about what _he_ felt about _her_. She was certainly more than an ally, definitely a friend, but did he _love_ her? Did Clay even know what love _was_? It was hardly talked about in the Mudwing Kingdom, since there was no permanent mating there like in other kingdoms. The closest thing to love the Mudwings had was the momentary infatuation between two before they mated for a night.

"I… I don't know when," Peril struggled, looking down, wrenching Clay out of his thoughts. "When I fell for you, I mean. I think it might have been here, the second time we talked. Or maybe it was afterwards, at that dinner when you helped me open up again, maybe. But I know that when I realized you really were all that Obsidian was pretending to be, that you were kind, that you believed dragons could change, that you believed I could do what was right despite everything I'd done before, love took me again. I realized that I kept thinking about you, and I kept feeling like I had felt with him. But, Clay, I didn't _want_ to. I didn't want to fall in love, because this time, love horrified me.

"On one claw, I didn't want to let myself get close enough to another dragon and get hurt again, but, on the other, more important claw, I knew I couldn't love you for _your_ sake. No matter what I felt for you, you couldn't stay here with me, and besides, I'd kill you if we so much as touched. So after I started feeling myself falling for you, I tried to distance myself, and I tried not to let myself realize how much I loved you. But every time we talked, you broke apart those barriers with so much ease, with your smiles, and your caring words, and the way you tried to make me feel like I was _worth_ something, that I had to run away. And Clay, I know you said you're too nice, but you can't help me. Look, no matter what I feel about you, I know that what I feel is really pointless and unsafe, just like what Obsidian said to me. I can't do anything but hurt, Clay, and it's not like I can ever change my horrible, _murderous_ scales. I have to be alone, Clay, no matter how much you want to help me. That's how I'm meant to be."

Peril had tried to keep a stoic face, but emotion overcame her as she spoke, and she turned away. "Please, Clay," she half-cried, half-stated. "I can help you and your brother, but then you have to forget about me. You have to leave me alone, because I don't want you to get hurt."

That's when Clay decided. Maybe it was because he knew that if Peril felt this way about him, there was no way she'd go against him. Maybe it was because Clay felt such strong pity for her that he couldn't _not_ do anything. Maybe, just _maybe_ , it was because Clay was falling in love with her. The Mudwing's thoughts were so scrambled with Peril's confession and his own dilemmas that he was having a hard time thinking too hard about emotions. But this murkiness didn't deter Clay from striding over to Peril.

"Peril..." Clay tried to comfort, stepping forward, but Peril jerked away as he did.

"Stay away from me!" Peril yelled, looking at Clay with her tear-filled eyes. "I told you; I have to be alone!"

"Surely you don't think you're the only one with a secret?" Clay interrupted.

Peril blinked and took another step back, before muttering in confusion and leftover despair, "What do you mean?"

"Well, first of all, I'm not an official ambassador. All I am is a dragon trying to get his siblings back," he started. "But I have another, much more important secret, too."

Clay risked another step towards Peril. Peril didn't step back this time, and only stuttered, "I… I don't understand…"

Clay stopped in front of Peril, wondering how he was going to explain this. "When I was young," he started, "I was training in combat maneuvers with… my mentor, I guess you could say. My mentor - Asha was her name - could get quite rough with her training, and one day she launched a flame at me that I couldn't dodge om time. It hit my wing, and Reed or Pheasant or someone else rushed over with mud to try and heal me or put out the fire."

Clay lifted up the same wing that had gotten hit with fire years ago – the wing that still functioned and still looked completely normal. "But I wasn't hurt," he stated.

"Everyone was confused. We asked around, and we started getting asked if I had come from a blood red egg. When we said yes, they told us that, according to legend, Mudwings from these eggs were completely immune to fire. And apparently, the legends were true."

And then, before it looked like Peril had even completely processed what Clay had said, the Mudwing maneuvered his tail around the Skywing's. Likely from habit, Peril quickly tried to wrench her tail away in panic, but Clay held on to it. It was warm – very warm – so warm Clay even felt a small bit of pain - but the heat that would have already destroyed most other dragons at this point only felt like a wicked pinch, at worst, to Clay. Peril flung her eyes down at Clay's tail in worry, but when nothing apocalyptic happened to it, she looked back at the Mudwing's face in shock.

"Peril," whispered Clay. "I'm fireproof."


	17. Part 1: Chapter 16

**A/N: Update: I realized there was a continuity error in here. Whoops. I went in and fixed it, so it's good now.**

* * *

Peril blinked, but other than that the Skywing didn't move. She just stared at Clay, paralyzed with surprise. When she finally spoke, it wasn't an overly joyous statement. All she managed was, in a shocked tone, "But… I… y-y-you…"

Clay's tail was heating up slightly, and the sharp pinch was slowly growing into something a bit more painful, but Clay estimated that he could hold on to Peril for quite a bit longer before her scales would really start to damage him. After maybe ten minutes, though, he'd have to re-position his tail and let it cool for around a minute to avoid permanent damage before he'd be safe to touch Peril again. But Clay could see that Peril didn't comprehend this concept very well, so he uncurled his tail from hers. Peril looked at Clay's quickly-healing and soon uninjured tail with wonder.

Peril looked back up at Clay. "Just… just… _what_?" she asked, not in anger or suspicion, but with stunned curiosity. "You come here and steal my heart, and just when I've determined to let you go, you reveal that…" Peril faltered a little before continuing, "That I can't hurt you…"

"It's certainly helped me and my siblings stay alive this long," Clay said, thinking of times when he had shielded one of his siblings from a Sandwing's blast of fire. "I don't even know, really, how rare this ability is. All I know is that it stems from my blood red egg."

Peril shook her head, slowly. "It's… it's just… I've never… I don't believe…" she muttered, still in shock.

Clay had moved rather close to Peril, and therefore didn't have a problem reaching his arm out and placing his front claw on her shoulder. Peril glanced up quickly, as if she was afraid that Clay was going to burn himself, but nothing very dramatic happened that warranted her worry. Before, when Clay was younger, even though burns didn't hurt him permanently, it wasn't a pleasant experience to get burned. When Asha had accidentally toasted his wing, Clay remembered feeling a sharp pain, almost like daggers flying into his scales. But as time went on and Clay got older, the eldest Mudwing found his scales growing more and more resistant to fire, to the point where Clay felt that now he could submerge himself in lava for quite some time and then come out alive. Peril didn't have any need to worry.

"Peril," Clay repeated. "I can touch you, and I'm fine, because I'm fireproof."

Clay moved his talon off Peril, but Peril reached back towards him. Clay reached his other arm towards her and grasped her outstretched talon.

Peril looked slightly uncomfortable at the feeling of being touched, but there was also a huge amount of thrill presenting itself. She gently felt Clay's talons and his palm with her own, going over crevice in Clay's claw, and eventually let go. Peril smiled with a soft, bittersweet smile that fit her well.

"I don't know how to explain it," Peril eventually said. "I've never touched anyone, and now that I finally can, I feel like something missing in my life somehow came into it." Clay noticed that Peril's voice was wavering, not with sadness now, but with happiness, and noticed Peril still staring in wonder, again, at Clay's unhurt hand.

Clay didn't want to push Peril back into reality, but he reminded himself of Reed, and Umber, and Sora, and all his other siblings. They needed him. And to help his siblings, Clay needed Peril.

"Peril," Clay said softly. "Please, I need your help. Reed and I need to get out of here and to the Nightwing Kingdom, and I had a theory that maybe you could help."

Peril eyes didn't waver from Clay's as she said, "Maybe." Then she smiled again, but this time it was more mischievous. "You know, after what happened with Obsidian, I didn't know what to do," she started, her smile fading slowly. "I was stuck in between never-ending sadness and never-ending anger. I realized that Obsidian had lied to me and used me and hadn't ever felt a thing for me, and I hated him for it, but I still couldn't help feeling as though I had lost something important and beautiful. I eventually tried to talk to Scarlet about all the things I was feeling, but the conversation didn't go well, to say the least. Scarlet basically said, like Obsidian, that I should ignore my feelings, because I was a born killer, and the only emotion that I should ever feel was the satisfaction of killing someone. I tried to argue and say I could change, and that I didn't have to kill dragons, but all Scarlet did was laugh and ask what else I could possibly be good for. And I couldn't answer, because no matter what I thought about trying to do, my scales would just get in the way. Scarlet sent me off, but I didn't feel any better; I actually felt worse. I just didn't want to kill anymore, and I went into another bout of depression that made me just hide in my room, refusing to do anything for anyone."

Peril swayed her tail closer to Clay, but didn't touch him, likely due to her habitual aversion. Clay responded by grasping her tail with his again, and she smiled despite the sorrow her tale was bringing her.

She continued, "Eventually, though, a Skywing came to my room and started acting different than all the others that had tried to get me back on my feet and in the arena. He was just one of Scarlet's elite guards back then, but he eventually became Captain of the Guard, before Goldflare had to take over. You've heard of him before." At this, Peril stopped and almost smirked. "His name was Cloudstriker."

Cloudstriker? Clay had to think before he remembered the name. That Skywing who had come into the dining hall on their second night, Bismuth, had mentioned him, and Clay remembered Scarlet's fury at the mention of the name. If this Skywing had gained Scarlet's trust to the point of becoming Captain of the Guard and then betrayed her, then Clay could understand the queen's anger.

"Cloudstriker wanted to know if I really wanted to change," Peril continued. "All I could say was that I really, really wanted to make a difference in myself now, but I didn't know how, especially with my scales the way they were. Cloudstriker didn't say anything for a bit, and then asked if I was willing to do what was right despite what my queen wanted. I told him I didn't know, and that it would depend on what he wanted. And Cloudstriker smiled and started telling me about the Talons of Peace."

Clay nodded, his tail still entwined with Peril's. He knew about the Talons of Peace.

Before, they were an organization determined to end the Sandwing War that wound up turning the war in Blister's favor, but after Blister had killed her sisters, what was left of the group eventually dissolved into the Outclaws, opposing the queen that they had chosen for the throne. Asha, a high-ranking member of the group, had told Clay and his siblings the story many times before she left and Clay was transferred south. The Talons had originally rejoiced with the rest of the world when Blister took the position of queen. Then Blister had gone undeniably mad with power, executing anyone who possibly take the throne from her, including her own brother. She crushed any and all opposition against the throne, or tried to, before Thorn's group of various lawbreakers allied with discontent dragons from the Talons of Peace, which started a resistance that Blister couldn't break. And the more Blister fought them, the more the Outclaws grew, and now the Outclaws and Blister's forces fought each other in what seemed like an unofficial war.

Peril sighed, drawing Clay's attention back to her. "I was skeptical at first, but it hardly mattered. Burn had already been killed, and only a couple weeks later it became very clear that Blister would win the war - she was overpowering Blaze's forces too easily. Without all the dragons being captured and brought into the arena, my life settled down a little bit, but I still was the champion, and I still was sent into the arena to kill someone every now and then, and I still didn't like it. And after a while, the Outclaws became the huge group that they are today, like a much larger and much more dangerous second Talons of Peace, and I couldn't figure out what to do about them. Part of me wanted to change and try to help dragons any way I could, even if I had to go against Scarlet, and part of me was still controlled by Scarlet because of loyalty and fear. You know, she made up this whole scenario that I had to eat these black rocks in order to live, and I was paralyzed against going against her for the longest time because of that. In fact, sometimes I think I would have escaped with Obsidian and fled from the Sky Kingdom if Scarlet hadn't made up that scenario."

So that had been the purpose of the black rocks with Peril's food;. Scarlet must have still thought that Peril still believed her. Clay didn't know how Peril had figured out the lie, but Peril was happy to explain. "So I didn't decide on what to do until Cloudstriker visited me one day with a large package. All that was inside were rocks, and Cloudstriker just shrugged when I asked who sent this to me. But as he was leaving, he stopped, barely turned, and said, 'I'd suggest checking all these thoroughly, though.'"

"I did, and I found out that one of the rocks had something subtly carved in it. I read it, not knowing what it was, and as I read I was completely overcome." Peril smiled, though, suggesting the memory was a happy one. "It was from my birth mother, a dragon named Kestrel. She wrote to me and told me she wished we could have communicated earlier, but she told me that she thought I had been killed for the longest time, and that after she learned I wasn't, she couldn't ever get a message to me until Cloudstriker offered to do it. And then she told me everything. How she had tried to take me away when I was newly hatched, but couldn't. How Scarlet was likely controlling me with lies, and with poison. How I could change to a different dragon. It was there that I decided to join the Outclaws."

Peril untwined her tail from Clay's as she finished her story. "Cloudstriker actually had to run from the Skywing Kingdom. He tried to assassinate Scarlet with a few of his allies, including a couple Rainwings, but Scarlet managed to survive the attack, although that's where she got that melted gold in her scales from - the combination of Skywing fire and Rainwing acid literally melted some of her old golden chain-mail into her. But I'm still here. I try to act unsuspecting and innocent, and besides, I don't think Scarlet expects that her submissive little Skywing champion will ever think to go against her, so I'm probably not going anywhere. I mainly just leak information, but occasionally I help with escape attempts." She raised her eyes at Clay. "And that confirms your theory, I suppose?"

Clay's body filled with relief. It was a nice feeling, one that he hadn't had ever since Umber, Sora, and the rest had been taken away. "Yes," he answered. "I'm only confused about one thing. I presume your code name is the Princess. Why, exactly?"

"Oh, that?" Peril said, blushing slightly from embarrassment. "It's some ironic joke that Cloudstriker came up with, and it's stuck. I mean, I'm not a princess, not technically, but I'm so close to Scarlet that I might as well be. And the alias is also there because Scarlet would expect so many other dragons to start thinking themselves queens before me, so it hides my identity quite well, actually."

"Okay," Clay said. It was quite clever, actually – Peril didn't act like a queen at all, and Clay hadn't even thought about Peril possibly being an Outclaw until he was forced to, so those two facts fit together well. Now, there was something else on Clay's mind: "So, how do we get out of here before Scarlet does something terrible to us?"

* * *

Clay had managed to slip back into his room without raising any trouble. All Peaksoarer had done when the Mudwing passed was nod, and Clay went into his room with no one the wiser about his morning adventures.

"Hey," Clay said, nudging his brother. Reed looked up at him from his recent wake. Clay whispered, "It's gonna be a long night."

Reed just give Clay a look, then put his head down in order to fall back asleep.

* * *

 **A/N: Just a heads-up: No update tomorrow unless some small miracle happens; I've got an all-day thing I have to go to. I'll probably make it up with a double update on Sunday, though!**


	18. Part 1: Chapter 17

"Just after dusk" was a rather subjective term. Still, Clay and his brother, wanting to leave the kingdom they had been prisoners in for – what, about half a week now? (It felt so much longer…) – had felt the urge to try and leave their room ever since noon passed. Instead of leaving, however, the two forced themselves to sleep and rest and not really do anything, saving their energy for the night.

Crimson eventually came into the two's room and gave them both a couple chickens, along with a note from Scarlet, which read, "There will be no formal dinner tonight; I am expecting someone important to arrive tonight and I must make preparations for him. Look forward to tomorrow, however. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but let's just say that your whole world will be changed. Signed, Scarlet."

Clay _was_ looking forward to tomorrow, but that was because tomorrow, he'd be a free dragon again. The Mudwing was _not_ looking forward to tomorrow because Scarlet was apparently would change his whole world. In fact, that last sentence sounded extremely ominous and made Clay want to get out of the Skywing Kingdom even more than he had before.

About an hour after eating, Clay and Reed decided to risk leaving their room. Thankfully, Peaksoarer was guarding the two's room and let them go with little trouble. The two Mudwings walked to a western balcony started watching the sun from there, feeling every second drag by like a crocodile through mud.

Clay didn't know about his brother, but his head was full of thoughts, worries, and feelings. Thoughts of failed escape attempts filled his mind, as well as thoughts of what trials would come after the escape if it succeeded. And in the back of Clay's mind was all that Peril had said. Her story, her duality, her confession that she loved him… all of it filled his mind. Clay still couldn't pinpoint his feelings about Peril, even after an evening of thought on the subject. Whatever he felt about Peril was mashed together in a big soupy mess with the rest of his thoughts, and figuring out exactly what that feeling was turned out to be much harder than Clay expected. And, once again, Clay reminded himself he had no good idea of what love was.

Eventually, the sky darkened, the sun fell, and Clay and Reed agreed to go towards the library, where Peril had told the two to meet her at. Clay couldn't help but be paranoid the whole time he walked towards the library. A couple times he turned because he thought he heard something like talons on a floor, and once he thought he saw a shadow of a dragon watching them, but nothing revealed itself. Eventually they made it to the library doors unhindered.

The two Mudwings, checking once more to make sure they weren't being followed, went into the room. As promised, the door was unlocked and the library was empty, the keeper having gone to sleep for the night.

A door. There was supposed to be a door on the first floor that was labeled _Artifacts_ or something. Clay and Reed split up and looked around. Clay paced around the library, which was mainly made of stone, like the rest of the castle, but which also had very few jewels or fancy decorations in it. All that there was in the library were wooden shelves filled with scrolls. Reed had been right, most of the scrolls were about laws and politics. There were no fictional stories or even any history records here. In the back of his mind, Clay also wondered how Peril had gotten through this room without burning the entire thing down.

Clay thought, and realized something: Peril would _have_ to had stayed away from the shelves, which meant that the door the two brothers were looking for likely wasn't near the scrolls. Clay backed away from the scrolls and looked around. Most of the scrollshelves were located right across from the door into the library, but if one was to turn right or left immediately after entering, there was space that no scrolls were in. Clay glanced to his right and saw Reed glancing at something, and then Clay saw his brother turn, notice him, and call out to him.

"Clay!" Reed managed to whisper and shout at the same time. "Here!" Reed pointed at a small stone door with nothing fancy about it all. Clay walked over, and saw that the door did indeed have the word _Artifacts_ engraved on it in slightly tarnished silver. The two Mudwings opened the door, also unlocked, and squeezed inside. They were greeted with a staircase down into what felt like what had been a small cave before the Skywings had remodeled it.

Peril was at the bottom of the stone stairs, like she had promised. Clay didn't see the secret exit she had spoke of, but he had figured Peril wouldn't reveal it until they arrived anyway. Clay also didn't see many artifacts, but Peril had told him the room was kept mostly empty and that most important Skywing artifacts were kept in the treasure room, closer to Scarlet's throne room than Clay ever wanted to be again.

But, in shock, Clay realized that the wall in this room was painted with a mural that rivaled the one in his mini-palace in terms of its astounding nature: a dragon from each tribe flying through a huge, open, blue sky, each one looking powerful and yet still spectacular and glorious.

Peril looked at the two Mudwings, then up the stairs, then turned towards the wall. "Okay, this is your escape," she said quietly. "I don't know much about this picture, other than that a Skywing painted it under the commission of our last queen - Scarlet's mother - as a depiction of the unity the tribes had under the Scorching. But, if you would, take that rod," Peril gestured towards a steel rod with an odd end almost hidden by some boxes by the base of stairs with her head, "and stick it in the Skywing's eye. Part of the wall will actually retract farther back and reveal a secret passage."

Clay nodded, and then picked up the rod. He walked over to where Peril had indicated, and managed to fit the rod into the Skywing's eye, where there was a slight depression. Nothing happened.

"You may have to turn it a bit," whispered Peril.

Clay tried to turn it, but still nothing happened. Clay had a sudden, terrifying doubt that maybe Peril was like Scarlet in the sense that she didn't want the Mudwings to leave. Maybe Peril was that desperate for some dragon she could touch, and she wanted to keep that dragon with her forever…

Then Clay felt the rod jerk and activate something, and the part of the wall slid back, almost like a door. A long, musty tunnel branched to the left just past where the wall used to be.

"I don't know who built this tunnel, or who discovered it," Peril said. "It's been used before, though, and I think – I'm pretty sure – that it's more or less safe."

"That's reassuring," muttered Reed.

"You'll have an escort south," Peril continued, not responding to Reed. "You might know her. Blitz? Does that ring a bell?"

Clay had to think for a moment before remembering Blitz as the Skywing who had escorted the two Mudwings into the Skywing Kingdom. Now, it looked like she was going to escort them out.

Reed must have nodded or something, because Peril continued talking. "No Skywing is going to think much of two Mudwings flying through southern territory, especially if they're with a Skywing escort. By the time Scarlet figures out you're gone, you'll be so far away from the palace that you won't even have to worry about guard posts. And you'll be going south, and Scarlet will think you're headed east, towards the Mudwing Kingdom. She can't catch you if you fly fast, even if we are Skywings. Eventually, you'll get to a mountain that looks like it has three horns sticking up in an almost triangular formation. I've heard it's hard to miss, and Blitz is, thankfully for you, an Outclaw, and knows where it is."

Reed nodded again, then scooted towards the tunnel, followed by Clay. Reed turned and thanked Peril before ducking into the tunnel and starting to crawl through, hurrying away from the Sky Kingdom and Scarlet. But Clay didn't follow, at least, not yet.

Instead, Clay looked at Peril, wondering what to say. Thankfully for him, Peril spoke first. "So, this is goodbye?" she asked, looking down a bit.

"I guess," Clay responded. He wanted to comfort her, but, to be honest, he didn't know what he could comfort her about. It was likely he could never return to the Skywing Kingdom. Not as a free dragon, anyway.

So, this really was goodbye.

Clay felt a sudden sadness pang through him, and the full reality of the situation hit him. There was a high chance he would never see Peril again. After all the time he had spent in the Skywing Kingdom, Clay had grown to trust her and see her as a friend, and he didn't want to leave her behind forever.

Was this what love was?

Clay lowered his head. "I'm sure I can talk with you through the Outclaws." It was a small consultation, almost nothing, really, but it was something.

Peril only reached out towards Clay, and Clay reached back, and they held claws again. Clay noticed Peril's claw still going over the groves in his; perhaps the Skywing was trying to remember the only thing she could touch before she lost it forever. As Clay thought this, Peril leaned her head towards Clay and rested it on his shoulder. Clay thought he could hear her breathing get unsteady, and her grip get tighter.

After some time, Peril whispered, hoarsely, "You should go. Scarlet won't find out you're gone for a while, but when she does, she won't rest until she has you in pieces, quite possibly in its most literal sense. Don't worry, I'll get a message to Moorhen through the Outclaws and tell her that you're fine; you focus on your siblings." Clay nodded, and slowly moved his claws from Peril's.

Then the Mudwing, with one last look at the Skywing, ducked into the tunnel, and fled.

The tunnel was dark and musty and damp and not at all pleasant, and it certainly didn't help that Clay felt like he had been punched in the gut, being forced to leave behind someone he had grown to care about. Clay estimated it was a good ten to twenty minutes before he emerged into the moonlight again, but it felt like an hour. It took him another moment to register that he was in an outcropping on a mountain, looking straight out into the starry sky.

"What kept you?" asked Reed, quietly, who was standing next to Blitz, a couple yards away.

"Just saying goodbye to Peril," answered Clay.

His brother smiled mischievously. " _Ooh_ …" he said, smirking.

Clay walked up to his brother and then nudged him, less than gently, but before Reed could retort Blitz spoke up. "Ready?" she asked, eyeing the two Mudwings. Clay and Reed broke apart from their tussle and nodded.

"It is extremely important that you two stay with me," the Skywing said, not lifting her eyes away from the two Mudwings. "If you get tired, we can rest, but not for long. Our goal is to reach our destination before sunrise."

Blitz lifted into the air, her wings kicking up a small twister of dust, and Clay opened his wings and followed. Once airborn, the eldest Mudwing looked over his shoulder and saw Reed following.

And no matter what Clay was feeling about Peril, at least he was comforted by and willed forward by another thought: _Don't worry, troop._ _We're coming for you._


	19. Part 1: Chapter 18 - Skywing

**A/N: Wait, what is this? _A perspective switch!?_ Yeah, you didn't think I'd leave you hanging about Scarlet's plans like that, did you?**

* * *

Peril really wanted to leave for Scarlet right after Clay had disappeared into the tunnel. But Scarlet would find it suspicious if her champion came to talk with her at night, and besides, there was no point. The Skywings wouldn't find out about Clay and Reed's disappearance until morning.

So Peril forced herself to sleep despite the feeling of emptiness overtaking her. At least this time Peril felt a small satisfaction: at least Clay wasn't dead, at least Clay was going to go help other dragons, at least Clay hadn't faked his feelings for her, as far as she could tell. After a relatively sleepless night, Peril had made her way to Scarlet's throne room early in the morning, hoping to distract the Skywing Queen for as long as possible before Clay and Reed were found missing. Letting Clay go hadn't been easy for her; half of her, the more violent, possessive half, wanted to simply keep Clay in the Sky Kingdom forever, no matter what the consequences turned out to be. But Peril knew that half wasn't the one she had to listen to; she had known it ever since Obsidian had fallen off of her, dead. Peril knew that the half she had to listen to was the half telling her to keep Clay and Reed relatively safe and definitely happy, and the only way to do that was to send the two to their siblings, no matter what she felt about the action.

Peril rounded a corner and strode through the final yards to the throne room before her thoughts started to turn away from Clay. The Skywing champion quickly noticed some things that led to a hasty, yet accurate conclusion: something was wrong.

The first sign that something was amiss was the fact that no guards were around the first set of doors that led to throne room, which almost never happened, even when Scarlet wasn't actually on her throne. Scarlet didn't want anyone to attack and take her throne room as a statement, so the situation Peril was in was rare. Still, it wasn't unheard of. Sometimes Scarlet would simply request her first set of guards elsewhere, normally for privacy reasons. Peril thought that no matter what Scarlet was doing alone in her throne room, she could at least walk in and ask her advance guard about it.

As Peril passed the first set of doors, she started to hear Scarlet talking, excitedly. Here was when the Skywing champion noticed the second thing wrong: Scarlet's elite guard that would normally protect the second set of doors to the throne room was gone as well. As far as Peril knew, Scarlet had _always_ kept two dragons directly outside her throne room. Confused and a bit nervous now, Peril stepped slowly towards Scarlet, although the confidence in her steps was fading.

And then Peril heard Scarlet's words and realized the third thing wrong: Scarlet was talking about Rainwings.

"You might not like them, but I assure you," she was saying to someone else in her room, "I can attest to the usefulness of two Rainwing assassins." Peril's mind started running; something she'd had some practice with since joining the Outclaws. Ever since she had almost been killed by and definitely been maimed by some, Scarlet had possessed an interest for Rainwings. "The beautiful killers," she'd call them. But Peril had never thought Scarlet actually wanted some Rainwings for herself. Was that what Scarlet wanted Clay and Reed for: trading for Rainwings with the Nightwings? Peril hadn't ever actually heard of a trade like that ever happening; as far as Peril knew, the Nightwings preferred to keep their Rainwings to themselves.

The other dragon – likely a Nightwing ambassador, Peril figured – must have mumbled something, because Scarlet continued, "Well, then _give_ them drive. You can make them deadlier than _Mangrove_ , and I'll have two instead of one. Oh, it's just so _thrilling_!"

Peril realized that she had stopped moving towards Scarlet, just outside the second set of doors. Something was incredibly wrong; the Skywing Queen was talking almost as if she wanted to _add_ certain qualities to a Rainwing, like one could just add willpower to a dragon like one could add ingredients to a stew. Maybe she was just suggesting a training regime, but the way Scarlet was talking made it seem unlikely.

"Oh, you know what else I want," Scarlet suddenly interjected. "Obviously, I want them to turn into Rainwings - Iridescence and Refulgence, I think we'll call them. Make them both girls for safety's sake, and completely destroy their memories of the Mud Kingdom and replace them with memories of being raised since birth by me. I also want you to make them unquestionably loyal to me, again, for safety's sake. Also, they'll have extremely convincing camouflage, and extremely powerful acid. And, _apparently_ , you need to give them drive. Actually, I've been wondering: do you think we should make them smarter, as well?"

Peril had started moving backwards, away from Scarlet's throne room. What in the name of all the moons was going on? How could one destroy someone's past identity and change it into something else? What did anything related to Rainwings have to do with someone from the Mud Kingdom? Peril realized that Scarlet was apparently ordering someone to create a Rainwing from a _Mudwing-_

Peril suddenly realized, with confusion and panic and horror, why Scarlet had kept Clay and Reed in the Sky Kingdom for so long without throwing them into the arena: she had wanted _to turn them into Rainwings_! But that was... that was... _that was impossible_!

Peril was now filled with so much anxiousness and bewilderment that she actually jumped from surprise when Scarlet suddenly started laughing. "Yes, I'll get you your pay," Scarlet chuckled. "Always the capitalist, eh, Soar?"

The entirety of Peril's thoughts suddenly stopped and shattered into little glass shards, and then all those glass shards conveyed together and made one, big, bold splash of complete and absolute panic.

Peril had been eavesdropping on a conversation with Scarlet and **_Soar_** **.** If Scarlet found out about this, Peril wouldn't get in trouble, she'd get _executed_.

Peril shot towards the first set of doors, slid through them, and shut them as quietly as her panic could allow. Peril was not have supposed to have heard that conversation; in Scarlet's perfect world, Peril wasn't even supposed to know Soar existed. But Peril's Outclaw connections had led to her learning the name, and when Peril had asked Scarlet about him, the Skywing Queen had retaliated by almost murdering her champion. Scarlet had cut Peril's side – the only large scar she had ever received - with one of the fireproof spears, and had been ready to pierce her champion's heart, but Peril had begged and pleaded for her life, confessing that she had only heard the name and knew nothing about the dragon himself. This seemed to make the queen think against killing Peril. Scarlet allowed her to live, on one condition: "Stay away from Soar. Don't you ever ask about him again. And if I ever find out that you've talked to him, sent messages to him, interacted with him in _any_ way, I _will_ **_kill_** you."

Peril camped around the outside of Scarlet's throne room, but she didn't dare go back in until she saw the guards come back to the outside of the doors.

* * *

The Skywings actually found out about Clay and Reed's disappearance later than Peril had expected. Peaksoarer, when he went in to check on the two, gave a false report stating that the Mudwings were still asleep. It wasn't until Crimson went to check on them that she reported the Mudwings missing, and after some investigation, it was concluded that the Mudwings hadn't been there for quite some time.

Peaksoarer had been taken directly to Scarlet for questioning after this fact was discovered. Peril was still in Scarlet's room, trying not give away the fact that she had committed a major crime against her queen, and that she had heard of Scarlet's terrifying plan.

So Peril was a bit shocked when the doors to Scarlet's throne room slammed open. She had been facing Scarlet, so she turned around in order to see the entering dragons. Peaksoarer stood between two Skywing guards. One of the guards was Eagle, a dragon a bit older than Peril who kept to himself most of the time. But the other guard was _Amethyst_ , Peril realized with hatred. Born only a year after Peril, exactly on the second to last Brightest Night Pyrrhia had experienced, she had risen quickly – in a matter of months after joining the military, almost – to Scarlet's elite guard for her ruthlessness and complete loyalty towards her queen. Amethyst was the one who had led the group that pursued the Seawings who had started this whole mess, she was the one who had captured Clay and Reed's siblings, and she, as a nice final touch, held a deep, personal hatred towards Peril. Even now, while most dragons in the throne room not interacting with her simply ignored her, Amethyst took a moment to glare at Peril with a look that clearly said, "Get out of my vision, you _hellspawn_."

Scarlet raised her eyes at the guards and Peaksoarer. "Yes?" she asked, motioning for Peril to move aside so she could deal with her new visitors.

Peril moved over to the side of the room Vermillion was in, and the two guards and the prisoner moved forward. "Your Majesty," started Amethyst, "This dragon, Peaksoarer, has been convicted of issuing a false report. Earlier, he reported that the Mudwing ambassadors were in their room, but it has become apparent that the Mudwings are neither in their room, nor anywhere else in the castle, and have not been so for some time. They've disappeared."

Scarlet only looked shocked for a second before she was overcome with rage. "They got out," she murmured, each word filled with more anger than the last. "They _escaped_. I don't know _how_ , but they did…" Then Scarlet mumbled something Peril didn't catch, although it couldn't have been a nice word, before looking over at Ruby. "Ruby?" Scarlet stated, trying hard to keep her calm.

"Yes, mother?" Ruby asked, a bit fearfully.

"Find. Those! MUDWINGS!" Scarlet yelled, and Ruby almost jumped out of her chair and raced out of the room. The Skywing princess would rally up some troops and then search for Clay and Reed in all directions, but, hopefully, the two Mudwings and Blitz were already far away by now.

Scarlet turned her attention towards Peaksoarer, and waved her claw. It must have been a command of some sort, because the two crossbow-wielding guards on each end of the room detached their weapons from the straps they carried them on and lifted themselves into an upright position.

"Peaksoarer," Scarlet started, making sure she kept her eyes on the apparently traitorous Skywing. "Why, exactly, did you falsify a report, and especially one with this much importance?"

Peaksoarer didn't answer at first, but eventually he said, "I didn't want a war."

Scarlet paused in shock, and then glared at Peaksoarer angrily. "You don't think the Mudwings escaping is going to prevent this war, do you? They know their siblings aren't here. They'll tell Moorhen, and then we'll have war."

Peaksoarer didn't look away from his queen. He stared at her before chuckling a little, an act that bewildered Peril. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. I'm willing to bet that the Mudwings don't want a war anymore than most Skywings, and I know that the Nightwings, once Moorhen gets in touch with them, will be much more negotiable than _you_ could ever be."

It was a direct insult towards Scarlet, and Peaksoarer knew it. Scarlet narrowed her eyes in fury. "You dare insult me?" she demanded.

Peaksoarer chuckled again. "Oh, I've already insulted you," he said. "Not just with the false report. I've let them roam around the castle when their new curfew forbade it. I even saw them, you know, lurking around after dusk last night, but I didn't think it of importance to tell them that you said that they couldn't be out, wandering around," Peaksoarer smirked towards Scarlet with a sense of superiority, like he was proud of what he had done. "You know, I can't see anything wrong with what I did. I treated our ambassadors like _ambassadors_ , and not prisoners. The only the thing I did wrong was disobeying you, of course."

Peaksoarer's confidence shocked Peril. This dragon had risked – and was about to lose – everything, for a chance – just a _chance_ – at peace. And Peril knew just about every Skywing in the Outclaws, and Peaksoarer wasn't one of them.

Peaksoarer was just an ordinary dragon.

Seeing the determination in Peaksoarer's resolve made Peril realize, without a doubt, that letting go of Clay had been the right thing to do. Too much was depending on Clay right now. Too many dragons' lives. No matter how much it hurt, Peril had to let Clay go.

She still loved him. She had resolved to let him go, yes. But she still loved him.

Scarlet, oblivious to Peril's thoughts, was seething. "You do realize," she breathed, each word filled with more hate than most dragons could manage, "that this is treason."

Peaksoarer smirked again. "Of course. You're an idiot if you thought I didn't realize that. But you're also an idiot if you think that what you're doing with the Mudwings is going to continue unopposed, Scarlet." Peril could see the rage in Scarlet building and building and building…

"You're an imbecile," insulted Peaksoarer. "And as long as you keep up your moronic ways, dragons are going to keep escaping from you, because more dragons will want to go against you. Yes, Scarlet, there will be more incidents like Clay and Reed, like Stormrider, like Oyster, like Cactus, like Durian, like Copperhead, like Ac-"

Scarlet had snapped and whipped her hand down in an unfamiliar motion to Peril. At the signal, the two Skywings with crossbows fired at Peaksoarer. Peaksoarer jerked back and his words were cut off as the bolts flew into him, causing a crunch to ring out through the room as the projectiles broke past his scales and embedded themselves in his flesh. Amethyst and Eagle grabbed onto him and held him upright, and Peril got a good look at Peaksoarer's injuries. One of the arrows had hit him near his shoulder and might have been recoverable from, but the other had hit him in the chest, near his heart.

Peril had heard Peaksoarer gasp when the bolts flew into him, but now, Peril realized in surprise, Peaksoarer was laughing. He was _laughing_ at Scarlet. But eventually Peril heard those laughs turn into something else – some sort of awful cough – that made the Skywing start bleeding from his mouth. His breathing eventually turned into the sounds of a dragon chocking on his own blood. Scarlet pushed herself off her throne and strolled over to Peaksoarer, obvious hate in her movements.

And then, with a quick slash of the queen's talons, Peaksoarer was on the ground, his throat ripped open, the rest of his life draining from his eyes.

Peaksoarer's death hadn't stopped Scarlet from festering over his words, though. "All of you except my elite guard, leave. Take his corpse with you," she said in a rage, turning away from Peaksoarer's body and stepping back towards her throne.

Peril walked out after Amethyst, Eagle, and Vermillion had lifted Peaksoarer's body away. She kept walking, and walking, and thinking.

Dragons were willing to die to stop a war between Skywings and Mudwings from happening, and not just dragons who were sworn to peace, like the Outclaws. Peril couldn't let this war happen.

She just wasn't sure how she, the flaming dragon of death, could manage that.

* * *

 **A/N: Originally, I wrote this thing in parts. This is the end of part one (tentatively titled "Mudwing"), so next chapter will actually be the prequel to part two (tentatively titled "Nightwing" (Hm, I wonder what that part will be about)). That being said, don't skip the next chapter. It is probably, like, the most important chapter in the entire story, world-building wise.**

 **Also, as a final note, don't think for a _minute_ that I'm anywhere _close_ to being done with the Skywings. *Rubs hands together evilly***


	20. Intermission - Nightwing

**A/N: I hate to say this, but updates probably are going to keep coming later in the afternoon for a while. The next ten to sixteen-ish chapters are less refined than the previous ones, so there's a lot more editing than before that I gotta do. I think I should also warn you that my interpretation of the Nightwing takeover without the prophecy is quite... well, different than what some might expect at first.**

 **Update: Changed Moon's segment so that she's a bit more in character, and so more explanation is done as to her actions.**

* * *

Morrowseer was shaking, although he couldn't tell if it was from fear or from rage. He laughed to himself as this thought ran through his head, despite everything. Him, _scared_? Almost unheard of.

The Nightwing was standing on one of the castle balconies that hadn't been destroyed by the first volcanic eruption years ago, and was completely filled with tension from the days past, enough tension to call fear, perhaps. The earth had started shaking a few days ago, but the quakes had become more intense day after day. Morrowseer didn't believe anything Mastermind or his group of scientists said; the volcano was going to erupt with the Nightwings inside of it.

Undeniable fury filled Morrowseer now, and the Nightwing slammed his arm against the railing of the balcony. The Nightwings had been ready for this operation for _years_ now. Why had Battlewinner _just_ given the command to attack?

At first, the delays made sense. How could the Nightwings not delay their strike when, about half a year after Stonemover had enchanted the tunnel to the Rain Kingdom, two Nightwing scouts saw Rainwings spit _acid_ onto a couple of plants, completely destroying them? How could there not have been a delay when the acid was determined to be extremely harmful to dragons? Even though Morrowseer didn't really believe that the Rainwings could muster up a full-scale rebellion against the Nightwings, he could understand Battlewinner's worry about the acid, and the need to make armor to protect against it until the Rainwings were either destroyed or in complete submission.

Then things slowly got less sensical. Battlewinner got it into her head after the discovery of Rainwing acid that controlling the Rainwings would likely require the use of allies. Never mind the fact that Morrowseer had proposed a prophecy that would have led to the Nightwings having the support of whatever Sandwing Queen they chose, no, Battlewinner didn't want allies _then_. But after the discovery of Rainwing acid, Battlewinner went back on her word and let her original doubts overtake her. The queen _demanded_ allies, and it was too late, the Brightest Night too close, for Morrowseer's original prophecy-based plan to work.

Morrowseer's preparations for invasion were interrupted as he was sent off to do diplomacy, leaving the rest of the tribe behind to develop defenses against Rainwings. Morrowseer hadn't known who to go to – many, if not most queens would refuse to support the Nightwings' plan. Eventually, Morrowseer realized that he was in no position to attempt an alliance with an actual queen, because no queen would want to support a fledgling Nightwing genocide in secret, for both moral and practical reasons. Morrowseer was forced to again turn towards the Sandwing sisters, and found that the most obvious choice for alliance was Burn. After all, she and her allies controlled almost the entire area around the rainforest, Blaze was allied with Icewings and therefore destroyed any chance of an alliance, and Blister wouldn't think the Nightwings worth anything if they came crawling to her for an alliance now.

Morrowseer remembered having a sinking sensation in his stomach that Burn had only accepted the invitation to talk because the princess had secretly wanted him dead and pinned on a wall. Morrowseer remembered telling the Nightwings' plan to Burn multiple times in an extremely tense meeting, and remembered that Burn slowly stopped looking at Morrowseer like she was visualizing how he'd look in her collection and slowly paying more attention, and smirking more and more, with each re-telling. Eventually, Burn had replied, "Morrowseer, your tribe's plan is absolutely despicable, full of heartlessness, and completely, irredeemably evil." Burn had paused and smiled at him after this. "I love it. Yes, I think we can make an alliance."

That had been how the Nightwings had been allied with Burn (so much for " _we_ do not need to get involved, Morrowseer"), and how the two forces had promised to support each other, secretly, in times of need, and how Stonemover had been sent to the desert to enchant another tunnel so Burn and the Nightwings could support each other easier. The Brightest Night, the original date Morrowseer had set as the last possible day before the invasion, came and went, with the Nightwings nowhere near ready for a full-scale invasion, even if it was only against Rainwings. But Morrowseer comforted himself by thinking that now the preparations could restart.

Then Stonemover made Morrowseer regret those thoughts by taking the Obsidian Mirror and then disappearing off the face of Pyrrhia.

Stonemover had enchanted the tunnel, yes, but afterwards the animus simply took the Obsidian Mirror, left, and then never returned to the Night Kingdom. Battlewinner sent Morrowseer back to the mainland to look for their animus and their animus-touched object, but the Nightwings couldn't find anything close to a clue about either of their whereabouts. Time droned on and on and _on_ until _two whole years_ had passed, and Morrowseer had all the while remained captain of the endeavor to find Stonemover, Battlewinner all the while seemingly oblivious to Morrowseer's need for invasion preparations.

Morrowseer eventually, plain and simple, gave up. Even with Burn's troops helping to comb Pyrrhia for Stonemover, nothing ever turned up, except for rumors of a small, gold-scaled, newly born hybrid under the protection of Thorn, the leader of the Scorpion Den. But Thorn had refused any Nightwing audience and certainly wouldn't talk with Burn's forces, Stonemover obviously didn't want to be found, and Morrowseer had an invasion, now two years overdue, to plan.

This was when the delays became infuriating.

Morrowseer could understand Battlewinner's original worries about the acid. But he couldn't understand why Battlewinner insisted on equipping every single Nightwing involved in the attack with metal armor, especially since metal had quickly become precious in the Night Kingdom, and especially once most learned Nightwings accepted that the Rainwings could be destroyed or muzzled and enslaved with hardly any effort. Morrowseer could understand Battlewinner's worry about the rainforest offering the Nightwings different fighting conditions, but he couldn't understand why that led to _years of ground-based fighting training_ before Battlewinner had even considered the Nightwings ready for their operation. Morrowseer could understand Battlewinner's worries about fire not being usable in the rainforest due to extensive vegetation, but he couldn't understand this leading to multiple years of weapon development that was headed by not Mastermind, but his _dragonet_. Morrowseer could understand Battlewinner's new worries about the Rainwings' sleeping darts, surfacing only half a year ago, but he couldn't understand why Battlewinner was so against just sending in some dragon like Deathbringer to destroy the majority of the weapons in a calculated strike.

It had taken a long time, but Morrowseer had, about a year ago, at least finally understood _something_ : the operation against the Rainwings would not be launched when _he_ was ready. It would be launched when _Battlewinner_ was ready. And Battlewinner would not be ready until she could march in with her tribe and destroy the Rainwings herself, and that wouldn't happen until she could rise above lava without dying, a task Morrowseer wasn't even certain was possible.

Morrowseer wasn't entirely sure Battlewinner _had_ issued the order to attack the rainforest, now that he thought about it. Greatness had been the one who had gave the order, speaking in such a clear voice that Morrowseer hadn't questioned its authority at the time. But it was quite possible the princess had used her figurehead status to give a falsified order. It was quite possible, Morrowseer realized, that Greatness had acted like an actual queen, and tried to send her tribe to safety while she stayed behind to placate her mother.

Morrowseer wanted to believe that everything would be fine. The attack had been carefully planned and refined over a span of what Morrowseer considered too much time: in a nighttime strike, a small group of Nightwings, led by the queen's personal assassin, Deathbringer, would attack and kill all of the Rainwing queens in one swift blow. Then another group of dragons, not small but not large either, headed by the young but incredibly vicious Fierceteeth, would rush into the Rainwing Kingdom and take over whatever was left of its control center. Then that group would send message back and tell the last group to invade and surround the Rainwing's main village. The Rainwings would wake up surrounded and bounded, and the rest of the Nightwings would move into the rainforest unabated.

That was the Nightwings' plan, and the Nightwings refused to deviate from it. Unfortunately for the Nightwings, nature apparently had a different plan.

Fear, pure, unadulterated fear, suddenly shot through Morrowseer as a massive earthquake struck. Bits and pieces of the Nightwing castle chipped off and fell. The majority of the castle was going to collapse, and the parts that didn't would get destroyed by the volcanic eruption that was clearly about to happen.

Morrowseer had fallen on the ground from the earthquake, and got up with determination. His priority, when making his plan to take over the rainforest years ago, had been to save his tribe.

That priority had not changed.

* * *

Morrowseer rushed outside the castle, towards the small island where the tunnel Stonemover had enchanted so long ago laid. A large group of Nightwings was waiting there, waiting for someone to tell them that it was safe to launch the final wave of their assault on the Rainwings. Many looked nervous, and even more kept looking up at the volcano. Morrowseer landed in front of the group. He couldn't help but noticing Secretkeeper to his right, hidden slightly behind a few dragons, but soon his attention was directed to the Nightwing commander, Pumice, in front of him.

"Morrowseer," she said. "Why are you…?"

"I'm here to tell you to go on through," said Morrowseer, mustering up his courage. There was no doubt in his mind that he was betraying his queen. But that didn't matter to him now, because he wouldn't have a queen in an hour, at most, if nature kept its course.

"Did…did Battlewinner…" stammered Pumice nervously.

"It doesn't matter what Battlewinner said," replied Morrowseer, talking fast, but with power. "This volcano is going to erupt. Everyone here needs to leave."

The Nightwing commander looked at Morrowseer, then the volcano. She didn't say anything at first, but then turned around suddenly and shouted, "You heard him! Captain Morrowseer has issued an official order! Go! Go! Now!"

At her words, Nightwings started filing in to the tunnel a little less than orderly. The Nightwing commander stood back and watched her troops disappear to the rainforest, regularly looking up in anxiousness at the volcano.

Morrowseer saw Secretkeeper move towards him, which was a surprise. Ever since his mate had lost her egg, the two had grown apart. The fact that Morrowseer was often training troops or adjusting plans or doing whatever else Battlewinner wanted him to do for the Nightwing takeover didn't help their relationship very much, either.

Soon she was out of the crowd and at his side. Morrowseer knew that he was scared, and a moronic part of him wanted to embrace Secretkeeper, or do something childlike like grab her tail, although he would never admit to either of those things. Plus, it looked like Secretkeeper had moved over to him not for comfort, but to tell him something.

"That was brave," Secretkeeper whispered.

Morrowseer shifted, a bit uncomfortably. It wasn't a secret that Secretkeeper despised the idea that the Rainwings should be slaughtered or even enslaved when the Nightwings came into the rainforest. Likely, in her eyes, Morrowseer hadn't done anything brave ever since he had taken up the operation to destroy the Rain Kingdom. Maybe that was the real reason why they had slowly broken apart.

Secretkeeper wasn't finished, though. The black dragon took a breath, and then said one sentence that destroyed Morrowseer's entire perception of the world. One sentence.

"You have a daughter," Secretkeeper said.

Morrowseer, forgetting the impending doom looming above him, looked at his mate in surprise. All he could think was _What?_ and _How?_

"I thought… you lost… her…" he responded, not even chiding himself for stuttering this time. How could he? All these years, thinking his daughter had been lost, to suddenly learn that she was alive…

"I hid her," Secretkeeper explained. "So she'd be safe from the volcano. She's still in the rainforest. She's beautiful, Morrowseer. Her scales aren't dark black, she's a gorgeous shade of silver. And she has these beautiful silver markings under her eyes that look like tears or a moon when it's at its crescent."

Morrowseer's whole world had been destroyed. He'd disobeyed his queen and learned that his dead daughter wasn't actually dead, all within the span of about ten minutes. He was so distracted and filled with conflicting emotions – some of them quite embarrassing, like sadness and a giddy sense of joy – that the Nightwing hardly noticed the massive earthquake that ripped through the Nightwing Kingdom until he had almost been knocked to the ground.

Secretkeeper and Morrowseer regained their balance, as did the dragons still waiting to file into the tunnel – two thirds of the original force, if Morrowseer guessed correctly.

"And she's special," Secretkeeper whispered to her mate, taking Morrowseer by surprise. "She can read minds."

Perhaps Morrowseer had been too quick to judge. _Now_ his whole world was destroyed.

Nightwings hadn't had powers for centuries. No, ever since Darkstalker, their powers had mysteriously vanished from their dragonets. And now Morrowseer was learning that his daughter, _his_ daughter, had legendary powers that no other Nightwing had.

"Why… why though?" asked Morrowseer, still stuttering a bit, still not really caring. "Why did you hide her from me?"

"I was scared what she'd see in your mind, Morrowseer," Secretkeeper answered, not looking at Morrowseer. "And I was scared what she'd do when she learned you were her father. I thought she'd see genocide of the Rainwings, and I didn't want her to know that her father was who he was. I thought you would be something that would frighten her or disgust her. But after seeing you do _this_ , you going against your queen to save the lives of others, I know that she can still see that light inside of you, however dim it is. She'll be able to see the good dragon that I saw in you, the one I loved, the one I _still_ love at times, when I'm alone and scared and sad."

Morrowseer just stared at his mate. He hadn't met his daughter because of his mind, because of his plans, because of what he'd done – because he'd planned genocide. He couldn't even blame Secretkeeper for her actions. Would he, as a dragonet, have trusted a dragon who admitted to wanting to kill hundreds of others?

"We don't need to do this, Morrowseer," Secretkeeper said, quietly. "We have to move away from here, but we don't have to slaughter the Rainwings. It's pointless and violent and stupid, and it could lead to disaster - their acid is nothing to discount. Please, you can stop our tribe. You don't have to do this."

"Morrowseer, sir!" cried out Pumice. "Are you ready?" She gestured to the shrinking line of dragons – now about a third of the original force – escaping from the tunnel.

Morrowseer nodded at Pumice, then turned to Secretkeeper. All the Nightwing could manage was, "I... I can try." For some reason, unlike the countless lies he become proficient at telling ever since his ascension to war commander, this one, rickety, unabsolute statement seemed to be filled with truth.

Secretkeeper heard that truth, smiled at him, and said, "Thank you."

And Morrowseer, despite all they had been through over the years past, took Secretkeeper's claw again, just like he had done when he was young. And for a second, Morrowseer felt fulfilled and innocent and _happy_ again, remembering the times Secretkeeper and him had spent alone, in love, before Morrowseer's plans had twisted him away from her. Yes, for a second, Morrowseer felt happy.

Then the volcano exploded.

The whole mountain where the Nightwing castle stood was devoured in seconds by a fiery blaze. Afterwards, the Nightwings were hit with an impossibly loud noise and impossibly strong earthquake. Morrowseer quickly turned away from Secretkeeper and saw the wall of flame engulf every outcropping of the Nightwings' old island, and then saw it coming towards them.

Everything slowed down, and yet all Morrowseer heard, consciously, was Secretkeeper. He didn't consciously hear the screams of Nightwings who couldn't get into the tunnel in time. He didn't consciously hear Pumice screaming useless orders to panicking Nightwings. He only heard Secretkeeper's gasp. He only felt her hold on to his claw tighter.

All Morrowseer's elevation and shock left him to be replaced by dread and sorrow. He had allowed himself to think that maybe everything would be all right, that he could meet his daughter, that he could save the Rainwings, that he and Secretkeeper could maybe become lovers instead of just mates again.

But nature is indiscriminate. It doesn't care whether it reduces a hero, a villain, or a mother and father to ashes. It only cares about letting a volcano erupt.

The last thing Morrowseer's mind registered before he was incinerated was that Secretkeeper was holding onto him, comforting both him and herself in their final moments. And then there was heat, and pain, and numbness, and nothing.

* * *

 _I can't trust this dragon; I don't know who he is. Sure, his mind looks clean - mostly clean, anyway - but that just means he's better than the other three. It doesn't mean I can trust him._

 _Oh, how did I get myself into this? I should have known that I couldn't have... I couldn't have saved my mother. I couldn't have stopped the volcano. Nothing can stop a volcano. But... still... I knew it was about to happen... and I could have..._

 _No. What if I had ran into the Nightwing Kingdom? They wouldn't have known who I am; they probably would've captured me and held me there, and I'd be dead, too. Mom would have wanted me to stay here. Right?_

 _Would mom have wanted me to warn her? To tell her that I saw a future where her scales started burning as the heat overtook her? Or would she have wanted me to just stay behind and protect myself, keep myself safe no matter what happened? Would she have wanted me to tell her that I saw her die? That I ran towards the Night Kingdom because of that? That I let myself get captured, trying to save her? And that now, I'm here with some strange dragon next to a group of panicking Nightwings, who keep thinking about this Battlewinner, and how she's dead, this Greatness, and how she's dead, this Nightwing council, and how they're all dead, including... my dad? I keep hearing about Morrowseer: "Morrowseer saved us, I can't believe it." "I barely got out; there's no way Morrowseer made it out alive." "Who are we supposed to follow now? Even Morrowseer is dead!"_

 _What is this dragon even thinking about? His mind is kind of confusing, but I think he keeps thinking about some other dragon, his sister, perhaps, and what she'll do to him when she finds out he had to abandon his attack run._

 _It's not even his fault. I was the one who got too close to him, thinking he was that dragon I've seen in my - what? Dreams? Visions? Horrible glimpses into the future? If I hadn't done that, one of his partners couldn't have taken me by surprise and captured me. And if I hadn't come to save my mom, his partner couldn't have done that, either, because they would never had found me._

 _Wait, he's thinking about something else: his dad? His mom? The rest of his family? There's so many dragons here, and focusing on him is hard, all I'm getting from everywhere is worry and panic and fear._

 _Wait, is he happy?_

 _Oh, he's seen that dragon - the one dragging that other... dead one... and he's glad she's not dead. Fatespeaker - that's her name. Something is going on between those two, I see something like joy in her mind, as well. She's glad he's safe. And she's confused about who I am._

 _Wait... that dragon... I know her, too. She's from that vision of mine, the same one with him. She was standing in the middle of the fire with him, too - I know it._

 _So what do I do? Do I trust these two dragons, all based on some dream that I had, and force myself into their talons? Or do I let them give me to whoever they give me to? Do I want to be sent somewhere, with what I saw, and with all this noise - Three Moons, there's so many voices…_

 _What I saw... The rainforest burning, Rainwings dying, Nightwings dying, and then some dragons rising above the flames, shouting unhearable words, and quelling the fires. There weren't just these two, but I know these dragons, at least, were there._

 _So, this dragon, Starflight. Fatespeaker left, thinking about medic duties or something, but Starflight's still here. He's the one worried about his family and his tribe and himself. Do I trust him? Do I trust his friend? Do I trust anyone? I can't just give away my secrets, but I can at least start telling him where I came from, and who I am, and... oh, Three Moons, these_ voices!

 _I wish it were quiet, because I can't think clearly! Okay, I'll just drag this dragon away, and get farther from all these thoughts of "So, is the attack over? Did we fail?" and "Where's Deathbringer and Fierceteeth; they're the only leaders we have left!" and "The Nightwings... the Nightwings are dead. We're finished." Yes, I'll just get farther away, and we'll talk. And I'll figure this dragon out. I'll find out if he really can save this place from falling to flames. And I'll figure out if I really can trust him._


	21. Part 2: Chapter 1

**A/N: I love all my reviewers, but I am actually going to take the time and thank, specifically, that one guest reviewer who reviewed the last chapter. It really helps to know if someone is out of character or something seems strangely written or something of the sort. I'll work at it, I promise - I might even go back and re-work some things; I've got a couple ideas for change - and it really does help when someone gives me a critique!  
**

* * *

"I think I am, literally, going to die," Reed managed through the effort it took him to flap his wings. "I think my wings are going to give out and I'm going to fall into the mountains and I'm going to die."

Clay was tired - how could he not be? They'd been flying south for hours - but he was nowhere near as tired as Reed sounded. Clay glanced back at his brother, who truly was having trouble keeping up with him and Blitz. Reed was a couple yards back, and every time he would bring his wings down he would shake, as if something in him was about to break and, like he said, he would fall down to the mountains and die. Clay called ahead to their Skywing escort, knowing that Reed needed to rest right now. "Blitz! Reed needs to stop!"

Blitz, a couple yards ahead of Clay, looked back. After only a couple seconds, the Skywing nodded, then flew down towards the ground. Clay, then Reed, followed, and the three dragons soared down and landed on a small, slightly forested cliff that was part of a much larger mountain.

Blitz landed gracefully, as if she could have flown for hours more, Clay landed significantly less gracefully but at least managed to stay on his feet, and Reed almost collapsed the second he hit the ground. Clay stretched his sore wings and looked up in the sky, trying to judge the time from the stars and the one full moon out tonight. Clay's best judgment was that it was maybe two hours until dawn. He didn't know how much of a head start they had gotten from Scarlet and the Skywings, but he didn't want to risk anything. If Scarlet caught the two Mudwings, they'd certainly be thrown into a dungeon or, more likely, her arena.

Clay rubbed his tail over his brother, attempting to comfort him. Reed didn't react at first; he just kept breathing deeply. But eventually Clay's brother regained himself and smiled at him, saying a silent thanks.

"We probably shouldn't waste much time," Blitz said, looking around nervously. The Skywing had pushed the two hard throughout the night, but the Mudwings hadn't really cared. At this point, after Scarlet had more or less imprisoned the two, Clay and Reed just wanted to get away from the Skywing Queen. "Scarlet does terrible things to dragons who disobey her," Blitz continued. "She'll want you dead, sure, but she won't make that death easy. She has ways of hurting dragons that will make you two start begging for death."

"That's comforting," murmured Reed between his breaths, still trying to regain himself.

"It's the truth," Blitz retorted. Clay knew it was the truth, and he knew Blitz was right. Their priority right now had to be hiding from Scarlet. But still, Reed was looking pretty tired, even though he was recovering well.

Reed took a few more seconds of panting before he spoke again. "Tell me, again, why we're not flying to the Mud Kingdom," he half-demanded, half-asked, "when it would be _so_ much easier?"

"We're going to an Outclaw base for two reasons," Blitz sighed, with a bit of irritation in her voice. "First of all, Scarlet will be expecting you to fly to Moorhen. She'll send most of her search parties towards the Mud Kingdom. And it isn't like you'll be safe if you get into the kingdom; you know that Scarlet doesn't care about war. She'll send troops into Moorhen's kingdom searching for you, no matter the consequences. And, second of all, there are some dragons in the Outclaws that have connections with the Nightwing Kingdom, and those dragons can get you into that place much easier than any queen could."

Reed, who had dropped his head, still trying to regain his breath, nodded. Clay had already puzzled out the first reason, but the second surprised him a little. Clay had thought that him and his brother were going to wait out Scarlet's patrols, then head back to Moorhen and ask for audience with the Nightwings, although Clay knew it wouldn't be easy to get. He wasn't expecting the Nightwings to interact with the Outclaws - even if it was only certain members - when they didn't interact with anyone else.

Blitz softened a bit, and tried to convince Reed to move. "Come on, we're almost there. An hour at most, and then you can sleep for days if you want to."

Finally, Reed took a deep breath and exhaled, "Okay, I'm ready."

* * *

Before she had sent them on a midnight run, Peril had told Clay and Reed to look for a mountain with a triangular rock formation. Clay didn't really know what this meant when he heard it from Peril, but he recognized it when he saw it. There was no mistaking it. The mountain had a formation that looked disturbingly like disconnected dragon horns all pointing upwards at the same point in the sky. Blitz motioned for the Mudwings to follow closely, and flew down towards the base of the mountain.

Blitz landed, then Clay, and then Reed, who hit the ground and slumped onto Clay, breathing hard again. Clay saw Blitz step forward, looking around, before she suddenly whipped around to look to the left of Clay.

Everyone stopped moving, although Clay could almost see Blitz's brain running. Finally, the Skywing narrowed her eyes. "Is that you, Kestrel?" she called.

There was a small silence, and then a large – even larger than Scarlet – Skywing emerged from behind some shrubbery that had somehow previously managed to conceal her. She glanced at the two Mudwings, then looked up towards Blitz.

"New recruits?" Kestrel asked.

"Escapees," Blitz replied. "From Scarlet."

Kestrel looked back down on the Mudwings, as if she was sizing them up. Then the large Skywing chuckled, not in a nice way. "Escapees? Okay, Blitz, I can see you risking your scales for a couple of Mudwings. But then you brought them _here_ , instead of running them to Moorhen? Really?"

Clay couldn't help but feel insulted; Kestrel had not said _Mudwings_ in a casual manner, but rather as if she was chiding the brothers for what tribe they came from.

Blitz, on the other hand, smiled, a bit smugly. "I don't know, Kestrel. These dragons came straight from the Princess, and she seemed to think it was pretty important they got to safety _here_. Something to do with Nightwings."

Kestrel's expression changed to shock as she looked at the Mudwings again, but then her face quickly returned back to its judgmental origin. "She's an interesting dragon, that's for sure," the large dragon said, softly, before continuing with much more loudness, "But I suppose escapees from Scarlet are always welcome here."

Clay remembered Peril mentioning Kestrel as the dragon that had turned her away from Scarlet and towards the Outclaws. But Peril had spoken of her with happiness and hope, so Clay had been expecting someone, maybe, oh, _not like his mother_. But, in the couple seconds that Clay had known Kestrel, Kestrel had simply painted herself as a judgmental, cranky, and rather aggressive dragon.

Blitz seemed used to it, though. "Kestrel, are you going to keep us standing out here until Scarlet's troops catch up, or can we continue this conversation inside the hideout?" the Skywing escort asked, with the smallest bit of irritation in her voice.

Kestrel took another look around Clay and Reed, likely checking for any possible pursuers, then she walked towards the mountain. Behind a couple trees, in some bushes, must have been some hidden mechanism, because after Kestrel fiddled with something there, a door in the mountain opened with a scraping sound, similar to the escape tunnel in the Skywing Kingdom.

Clay and Reed followed Blitz and Kestrel into the mountain just as the sun was coming up, hearing the door scraping shut behind them. Light came from somewhere, and Clay noticed loose layers of leaves over what were likely natural entrances into the cave. These covers were in letting light into the cave, but also hiding the natural entrances, making it look like the cave wasn't really there. The four dragons made it to a long tunnel with cavities in the walls; Clay figured that those holes would probably lead to somewhere farther down within the base.

Meanwhile, Blitz was talking to Kestrel, asking about some transfer or something of the sort. Clay heard the words, "Yes, she's here," before Kestrel called back to them, talking directly to the two brothers, "You have business with Nightwings? That's why you're here?"

"Yeah," Clay called back.

Kestrel nodded. "Then that's why you were sent here," she explained, "my- ah, the Princess wanted you to meet Thorn's daughter, and she was transferred here recently. So I guess I'll go find Beetle, then. She should be able to help you, considering her connections with the Nightwings."

Clay almost stopped. _Beetle?_ _The_ Beetle? As in Thorn's one-and-only ruthless, cunning, uncatchable, could-kick-your-butt-while-still-looking-pretty dragon of a daughter? _That_ Beetle? Kestrel talked about her so casually, as if she was just another member of the organization, but Thorn's daughter was absolutely _infamous_. And since when did this elusive Outclaw develop connections with the _Nightwings_? Before Clay could ask for anything close to clarification, though, Kestrel was gone, disappearing into one of the many cervices within the walls of the cave.

"I'm sure you're hungry and tired," Blitz said to the two Mudwings, leading them into another crevice. "I'll get someone over here to get you food, and I'm sure no one will mind you taking a nap here."

Clay wanted to stop Blitz and ask about Beetle, but the Skywing had made it into a room with piles of leaves on the ground. She nodded at the Mudwings before any questions could come out and then disappeared back out into the main hall. Reed was apparently so tired that he almost fell flat on his face, but Clay was nervous. Beetle was more-or-less the second-in-command of the Outclaws, and Clay had heard so much about her that he didn't know what to expect. He'd heard dragons call her a hero, a villain, a liberator, a murderer...

That being said, Clay's experience with Peril had taught him not to judge something on hearsay. More thoughts - confusing, contradictory thoughts - about Peril filled his head, but Clay was too tired from his flight to think about her. And Reed looked so peaceful, already sleeping on the floor…


	22. Part 2: Chapter 2

Clay opened his eyes, and quickly registered that he was on top of Reed. The older Mudwing rolled off his brother, who was still sleeping, before yawning and looking around. The cave was mostly empty, other than for the two Mudwings, their beds, and, as Clay realized with a startle, a Seawing that appeared to be reading something next to him. Seawings and Mudwings had fought against each other in the Sandwing War, and relations between the two tribes had not been great since. This Seawing, however, didn't seem to be sharpening a knife and getting ready to stab the two Mudwings, so Clay spoke up. "Hello?" he called.

The Seawing looked up at the Mudwing, and that's when Clay saw it: one of the Seawing's wings was gone - only a small part of the bone structure and no part of membrane was left - with what looked like burn scars at what was left of the base of the limb. Clay had known a dragon who had lost one of his wings in the Sandwing War, and that dragon often told him that balancing when standing up or sitting down was deceptively hard with the loss. This Seawing seemed to be having the same issue; he moved like he was old and any sudden gesture would break him, but, on second inspection, he actually was not much older than his mother or Asha was. The Seawing stumbled the smallest bit as he rolled up his scroll, stood up, and spoke in a slow voice. "Hello, Clay. Did I wake you?"

"I don't think so," responded Clay, surprised that the Seawing knew his name. He figured Blaze or Kestrel would have told it to him.

The Seawing nodded, positioning his one remaining wing in its natural alignment, fully regaining his stance. The Seawing's amputation must have happened rather recently; the disabled Mudwing Clay had known learned to live with his injury without visible issue only about a year after he lost his appendage. "We presumed you might be awaking shortly," the Seawing said, once comfortable. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Webs, one of the commanders of this Outclaw base. I'm here to give you provisions dispatched to you by Beetle herself."

Clay nodded, although the name "Webs" wasn't familiar in the slightest. Then again, the only Seawings Clay knew the names of were Queen Coral and her only daughter, Princess Anemone, as well as some of the higher ranked Seawing generals that he had fought against in the Sandwing War, and the only Outclaws Clay knew the names of were the infamous ones, like Thorn or Beetle.

Webs picked up a dead turkey from behind himself and then threw it towards Clay, which the Mudwing figured was his "provision." Clay ate it gratefully, and then poked Reed. "Reed, food's here," Clay said.

Reed slowly woke up, and was then handed another turkey by Webs. Clay introduced Reed to the Seawing, and then asked Webs, "So, you mentioned Beetle…?"

"Yes," Webs replied. "She came by while you were asleep. When she saw you, she allowed you to sleep, as she figured that you both were exhausted from escaping from that horrid Queen Scarlet."

"So she is here?" asked Clay, part of him glad that he wasn't being forced to separate truths from lies anymore, part of him nervous because, well, "she" was _Beetle_.

"Yes, she's here," the Seawing responded. "Thorn doesn't like to keep her daughter in the same place for too long - Thorn feels that the more Beetle is moved around, the more elusive it makes her daughter. She was just transferred here a couple days ago, flown in with Kestrel - a commander of this base - and Cloudstriker - a commander of a base up north - as her main guard, mainly to confuse any possible interceptors about her final destination."

Reed had finished his turkey, and looked like he was about to say something, but before anything could be asked, a voice came from behind Webs, calling for him. Webs turned back, slowly, as Kestrel entered the room, taking a moment to glance at the Mudwings before turning her full attention to Webs. "So, they just woke up?" she asked, a bit rudely, her undertones suggesting disapproval.

Webs sighed a little, before saying, "Yes, they just woke up, Kestrel."

"About time," Kestrel remarked, glancing at the Mudwings again, before muttering under her breath, "They'd never survive here. I've seen Rainwings with more-"

"What exactly do you expect?" snapped Webs, looking a bit angry. "These dragons have not likely been trained in long-distance flights, and yet they made an incredibly difficult flight with success after, may I remind you, escaping from Scarlet and her troops, who are known for their relentlessness in pursuing escapees?

" _They_ didn't escape from Scarlet," Scarlet snapped back. "The _Princess_ let them escape from Scarlet. And I'm willing to wager that without Blitz, they wouldn't have pushed themselves hard enough to actually get away from the Skywings."

Clay found himself a bit overwhelmed with Kestrel. Why was she so aggressive? Everything that he did was apparently wrong in her eyes, and while Clay wasn't going to try and pretend that he had escaped from Scarlet on his own, he hadn't exactly sat by and let other dragons do all his work for him. Clay couldn't help but wonder if Peril would have even wound up with a better childhood under Kestrel; the large Skywing just didn't seem like the mothering type. Clay, at the very least, knew that _he_ would probably have gone insane living under Kestrel for his entire childhood, like that would have ever had a chance of happening.

"Why are you even here?" sighed Webs eventually, obviously done arguing.

"Ooh, snippy, Webs," Kestrel retorted. "Aren't you supposed to be the coward?"

"You're the one that first said that most of my cowardice was blown off with my wing," replied Webs, not removing his glare from Kestrel.

Kestrel paused from Webs' remark, and then shrugged. "I'm off duty, actually. It's my break."

"Oh, good," Webs replied. "Then you won't mind getting Beetle for me."

Kestrel looked at Webs like she had thousands of better ideas for her break time than to track down a dragon in this fortress, which Clay didn't even begin to guess the size of. Nonetheless, Kestrel walked, albeit with a sulking manner, out of the Mudwings' room to find Beetle.

"Well, she's not rude at all," muttered Reed sarcastically.

"You get used to her," Webs replied, settling down a bit. "I've been working with her for who knows how long now, ever since I was part of the original Talons of Peace. She has occasional lapses where she shows that she cares. She even saved my life once, you know, about the same time that my one act of valor gave me this." Webs turned himself towards the Mudwings ever so slightly, showing them his missing wing in all its glory.

Clay wanted to ask about this occasion, but Reed got his question out first. "Hey, uh, Webs, sir?" he started. "I've been wondering, actually. One of the dragons who raised us was part of both the Talons and the Outclaws - Asha, was her name. Do you know her? Is she still, um, okay?"

At the mention of the name, Webs looked at the ceiling, then smiled. "Yes, I know her," he said, reminiscing. "She was a friend, and one of our spies back when the Talons of Peace still existed. Although the term 'spy' might be overstating her purpose. 'Existed' could also fall under that category as well, at least for a good majority of the organization's lifespan. The Talons really had no purpose for most of the war. We only existed as a place where the banished or the betrayers could hide. It wasn't until we allied with Blister that the dragons from the Talons of Peace became a serious threat."

Clay nodded, as did Reed; Asha had told them many times that while the Talons had always had tried to fight for peace, "peace" had turned out to be too variable of a goal, and for a long time the organization was aimless. Eventually, Asha said, the dragons in the Talons voted for who would make the best queen of the Sandwings. They had picked Blister by a narrow margin, and then the group of lawbreakers had joined Blister's forces in secret.

No group, not even Blister, took them seriously at first. The Talons of Peace were tasked by Blister to support her in secret, and that was all that the organization did for a while. However, this support was extremely limited, as the Talons could not really offer anything except a couple more dragons sworn to peace, very few of which were close enough to any queen to provide information about anything worthwhile. No, every dragon thought the Talons were worthless.

That mentality changed when Rainwings started to join.

After the Nightwings attacked the rainforest, a few of the native dragons, running from the disaster in their home, found their way into the Talons of Peace. Most of the Rainwings that joined were driven, to some extent, and soon they were being trained in warfare - as foreign a subject to them as swimming to a rock - like the rest of the members of the Talons. And soon, Blister had multitudes of invisible, only-slightly-lazy soldiers that could have been anywhere. But these dragons didn't start becoming Blister's main fear factor until the mysterious Nightwing Queen released information to the world stating that Rainwings had the ability to fire extremely deadly venom. Most of the Rainwings in the Talons refused to use their venom, saying that it went against their ingrained code of honor. But the few dragons that didn't became invisible, deadly assassins working directly for Blister, most of them driven forward by surprising and what was considered uncharacteristic hatred toward any dragon allied with Burn. It only took time until an assassination was directed at Burn herself, headed by a dragon who was soon to become one of the most feared in Pyrrhia.

Clay didn't know too many dragons that had been in the Talons of Peace, but he, along with most likely every single other dragon in the world, knew Mangrove. The Rainwing had been found half-dead from exhaustion in the middle of the Skywing Kingdom, Asha told Clay once, and had been recruited into the Talons after one of the members nursed him back to health. He also harbored an insane hatred towards any dragon allied with Burn, like most Rainwings in the Talons, but Mangrove was said to be different; his hatred was rumored to go all the way down to a personal level. Whatever the reason, the Rainwing jumped at the opportunity to lead the assassination that would end the life of Blister's biggest rival.

Burn didn't go down without a fight; Clay could certainly remember stories about that. According to hearsay, the princess had been knowledgeable about Rainwing camouflage - apparently, there had been some sort of secret Nightwing alliance with her - and had seen Mangrove and his group before the Rainwings could silently kill her. Burn and her bodyguards fought off Mangrove's party for a good portion of time, but Mangrove himself was relentless, striking again and again at Burn, before the Sandwing princess made her final mistake and lost Mangrove for just a moment. And the next moment, Burn was on the ground, screaming, Rainwing acid soaking into her eyes.

After the life left what remained of Burn's eyes, Blister triumphantly invaded and announced control over the Sandwing Kingdom. All of Burn's forces quickly collapsed without leadership, and soon the war was left simply between Blister and Blaze.

Clay remembered when he had learned about Burn's death. The Mudwing had been worrying about a rumored mass strike on the Icewing tribe that would place him and his troop on the front lines. His commander had heard the news straight from Moorhen, and he announced Burn's death to all under his command soon after. Clay remembered thinking that he should have felt disappointed that what the Mudwings were fighting for was lost. He also remembered feeling guilty when all he could actually feel was relief that all his siblings were going to make it out of the war alive.

Because the war was more or less over the second Burn died. The Mudwings managed to stay out of the final days of the war, as Moorhen worked her way towards a policy of neutrality, but Blister allied with Scarlet almost immediately after Burn's death. (It wasn't like the Skywing Queen seemed to have any real qualms with allying with her previous enemy.) With the Seawings, Skywings, a good portion of the Sandwings, and the Talons of Peace supporting her, Blister became unstoppable. There were even rumors of a new, tentative Nightwing alliance with Blister before the Nightwings mysteriously cut off all communication with all other tribes. All Blister had to do was gather a large enough group of dragons and storm into the Ice Kingdom.

"I fought alongside Blister, you know," Webs reminisced, ripping Clay out of his own thoughts. "Well, "fought" may be an overstatement - I was mainly in charge of logistics - but I was with her when we stormed the Ice Kingdom. I remember hearing that Blaze's Sandwings and Glacier's Icewings were fighting like dragons had never fought before. It didn't matter, in the end, of course. Blister simply had gained too many allies. The Icewings eventually had to retreat farther back than Blaze and her group of Sandwings could follow. Blister fought her way to her sister, and it didn't take long for Blister to kill her final obstacle to the throne."

Webs paused before he said anything else. The next time he spoke, it was in a low, quiet voice. "I thought things would be better," Webs murmured. "I thought Blister would try to keep the peace we had fought so hard for. Instead, not only did she start turning other tribes against each other, but she started turning away from her own tribe."

Clay knew about this as well, as did Reed, presumably. Asha had told Clay's entire troop that no matter what the other tribes did, Blister was the true enemy of the Mudwings. Not Scarlet (That being said, it was hard to not see Scarlet as an enemy, too), not Coral, not Glacier, not whoever the queen of the Nightwings was. Blister was the enemy. Thinking about Asha made Clay rip himself from his history lesson, and the Mudwing asked, "So, uh, do you know where Asha is now?"

Webs lifted his head up. "I think she works near Jade Mountain now, if not in the mountain itself. I can assure you she still lives, at the very least."

Clay sighed in relief. All of Clay's best childhood memories involved Asha. She was a caring Mudwing that had mothered him when his real mother, Asha's sister, wouldn't do such a thing. Clay started reminiscing when Reed, who Clay had almost forgotten was with him during the conversation, despite Reed being the one who had originally asked the question in the first place, spoke up.

"I have another question, uh, Webs, sir," Reed stammered, looking kind of nervous.

Webs smiled from Reed's flattery. "It's just Webs, Reed."

Reed looked around before asking, "So, uh, Beetle, right? She's... not going to like, oh, I don't know-"

Webs chuckled, interrupting Reed. "She's quite amiable, most of the time," he replied. "She's unlikely to harm you."

"Aw, thank you, Webs," a voice that could only be Beetle's interrupted. Clay turned in surprise and found himself face to face with the gold-scaled, unstoppable Outclaw herself.

She _smiled_. "Name's Beetle," she said, quickly and efficiently. "Let's talk."


	23. Part 2: Chapter 3

Beetle nodded at Webs, who slowly walked himself out of the room, which left the two Mudwings and Beetle alone. This did not exactly make Clay feel comfortable. This also was when Clay started to notice some things about the dragon in front of him.

The first thing that struck Clay about Beetle was that she was _small_. She was just slightly younger than him, right? Even if Mudwings were generally bigger than other tribes, and even if he was a few months older than her, Beetle was _tiny_ when compared to him. There were also her scales, which would have looked stunningly beautiful in another life. Instead of a normal Sandwing's tan scales, hers were bright yellow, and they seemed to almost shine, even with the small amount of light in the cave. But while the scales themselves were pretty, the Sandwing had scars everywhere - scars on her legs, scars on her stomach, and one long scar running across the left side of her face, given to her, if Clay remembered right, by Blister herself - or was it Burn? Clay also noticed that Beetle seemed to be missing her tail barb that all other Sandwings had, which was a fact he'd heard about, but was also a fact he couldn't appreciate until he saw it.

Beetle raised her eyes at the two Mudwings, the smile on her face quickly fading to something much less friendly. "What?" she asked, in a voice that was deceptively powerful for the small dragon. "I'm strange looking. I understand that. So I'd appreciate it if you would stop staring."

Had he been staring? Clay backed off a bit, a blush of embarrassment crossing his face. Reed looked like he wanted to say something, but backed off as well.

This didn't seem to make Beetle feel any better. If anything, she became angrier. "What? Yeah, I'm not a normal Sandwing, so what!? You know, I don't have to help you, so if you'd rather walk out of here and back to Scarlet, then we'll do that instead. Bottom line: either deal with me, or find someone else - some _purist_ , I suppose - who can help you get to the Nightwings." Beetle was scowling at the two Mudwings, and Clay was backing down even more. Clay was starting to notice some other things about Beetle: Her words were quick, direct, and authoritative; she didn't give the Mudwings any chance to respond between sentences. Her body didn't have an ounce of fat more than it needed on it, and was instead completely muscle. And despite Beetle's small size, she had an incredibly commanding and intimidating aura to her, one that said, "Oh, just _try_ and attack me. We'll see who comes out alive." She was flat-out _menacing_ , and Clay couldn't help but try to stammer out an apology towards her, but he was so intimidated that nothing ever came.

Reed was the one that saved the day. "Miss, Miss Beetle, ma'am," he stammered out. Beetle jerked her head and looked Reed square in the eye, and Clay saw his brother falter a bit, but then say, "I don't think Clay here meant anything by staring at you, and I know I didn't. I didn't know what to expect, so I was trying to take you all in, so to speak. Plus, Clay is the exact opposite of a purist, honestly. I think he had an affair with a Skywing in the Sky Kingdom, actually."

"I don't think she needed to know that," murmured Clay angrily to his brother, his intimidated feelings suddenly disappearing into high-octane annoyance. "And you know that's not true. We did not have an _affair._ "

"I don't know," whispered Reed, mischievously, temporarily distracted from Beetle, who Clay only subconsciously noticed was losing her anger quickly. "She seemed awfully sad when we left, don't you think? And _you_ stayed behind to have a meaningful talk with her for, like, ten minutes. Or did you two do something other than talk?" Reed smirked at his brother playfully.

Beetle suddenly laughed at the two Mudwings. The two Mudwings turned back to Beetle, who seemed to have, by now, completely lost her anger and replaced it with amusement.

"Okay, don't break out fighting, you two," laughed Beetle, but something in the Sandwing's voice made Clay wonder if she actually wouldn't mind a good fight. Beetle continued, "I'm sorry for snapping. I just absolutely hate it when dragons look at me like I'm some abomination; it's the one thing I absolutely can not stand. But I guess I jumped to assumptions, and I shouldn't have." At this, Beetle made the slightest bow with her head, showing the two Mudwings that she held no hard feelings, before continuing, "I'm a hybrid, actually. Half Sandwing. Half Nightwing. That's why I look the way I do. It doesn't really get in my way anymore, but I just don't like it when dragons hate me only because of the fact that my parents aren't from the same tribe."

"So!" Beetle transitioned suddenly, scaring Clay a little bit. Beetle seemed to be very rugged, transitioning from topic to topic, idea to idea, with hardly any warning, although Clay figured that was probably just an Outclaw thing Beetle had picked up from growing up with the group. "Nightwings! Didn't you two need to talk with them or something?"

"Yes," answered Clay, dully noting that happy Beetle was much less intimidating than unhappy Beetle. "Our brothers and sisters were captured by the Skywings and then traded to the Nightwings. If we could get to the Night Kingdom-"

"Hang on," interrupted Beetle, her eyes narrowing. "Traded?"

"Yeah," replied Clay. "The Skywings got some new weapon from the Nightwings. I think Scarlet called it a crossbow."

Beetle raised her eyes in surprise. She looked down with confusion on her face and muttered something that sounded like, "Why'd they give them that?" Then the hybrid shook her head, looked up, and said, "Continue."

"Uh, well, if we could get to the Night Kingdom and get our siblings out of there, we would really, really appreciate it," Clay said, trying his best to project his desperation.

"Please?" added Reed, stepping up a little towards Beetle.

Beetle took a moment to take in the two Mudwings almost groveling in front of her before she chuckled a bit, her mouth turning up into a smile. "Should be easy," she said, simply.

Reed and Clay glanced at each other, surprise on both of their faces. Last Clay had heard, just _communicating_ with Nightwings was not an easy task. But, apparently, Beetle thought their request to release multiple prisoners was as simple as building a mud pie. "Yeah," she was saying, "I can contact a couple of dragons and negotiate a prisoner release. It shouldn't be too hard, I don't think. Actually, if I had to guess, the Nightwings are probably just waiting for you two to come, pick your siblings up, and escort them home."

"Hang on," interrupted Reed, looking at Beetle with nothing but bewilderment on his face. "So you're saying that we can just waltz into the rainforest and pick up our siblings?"

"No," Beetle answered, again, with quickness and directness. "You don't have to waltz into the rainforest - really, you don't _want_ to waltz into the rainforest. What will probably happen is that someone will bring your siblings to the edge of the forest, you'll pick them up, and you'll all be flying back to Moorhen by tomorrow."

"It's that simple?" asked Clay, incredulously; Beetle's prediction seemed a bit far fetched to him.

"Well, look," Beetle answered. "The Nightwings don't want the Mudwings to go to war, and if what's going on between Scarlet and Moorhen escalates even a little bit more, there's going to be war. Correct me if I'm wrong, I've only heard this through hearsay, but your siblings' safety is the final thing preventing this imminent war. So the Nightwings will be pleased to hand away a couple of dragons, especially, well, random Mudwing soldiers, to fend off this war."

"Wait," Reed interrupted. "Why wouldn't the Nightwings want the Mudwings to go to war? It seems like a very Nightwing thing to do to me - turning your neighbors against each other. Won't they have less interference in whatever they're doing if their neighbors are too busy fighting?"

Beetle just stared at Reed for a second, before asking, "You really don't think that, if this trouble escalates into a war, that it's just going to be between Scarlet and Moorhen, do you?"

"Uh, well, yeah, I kinda did," replied Reed, looking a bit uncomfortable.

Beetle shook her head. "No," she said. "You do understand why no other tribe has spoken out against Scarlet's actions, don't you? It's because of Blister. Her, Scarlet, and Coral - and Glacier, I suppose, although that union is very unsteady at the moment - make up Pyrrhia's strongest alliance, and Blister's behind the whole thing, pulling all the strings. No one wants to get on Blister's bad side, but, unfortunately for your tribe, Moorhen already has. Your queen refused to support Blister after Burn was killed, unlike Scarlet. Your queen refused to support Blister after the war ended, unlike Glacier. Blister doesn't want Moorhen's policy of neutrality, Blister wants Moorhen's unconditional support no matter what her terms are, and Moorhen just refuses to give that to Blister."

"Now, think about this," Beetle continued. "A war that starts as a conflict involving a few Skywings and Mudwings evolves into a massive coalition of Skywings, Sandwings, Seawings, and maybe even Icewings flooding into the Mud Kingdom. Moorhen won't be able to defend against something like that. Your tribe will be annihilated, Moorhen will likely be killed and replaced with some figurehead of Blister's, and you'll all be forced into submission by Blister. What does Blister do next? She's got every tribe directly or indirectly under her control - except two, both conveniently located in the same place. You have to realize that the Nightwings' situation is very much like yours, in the sense that they demand neutrality. But, like I said, Blister doesn't want neutral tribes in Pyrrhia, she wants tribes allied with her. The only reason Blister hasn't gone after the Nightwings already is because she doesn't consider them a threat, like she does with Moorhen. So, basically, as underhanded as this is, the Nightwings are using your tribe as a sort of a distraction, or a buffer, and they don't want to lose that, for their own sake."

Clay didn't say anything; his head was filled with newfound worries and doubts. Did Blister really want to force the Mudwings into unquestionable obedience? Was she really the one behind Scarlet's actions? Or was this just an over-worried, Blister-villainizing Outclaw theory, and just an exaggerated version of the real story?

"So," Beetle continued, "as you can see, it is rather important that we get your siblings back, so Moorhen can prolong this war as long as she possibly can. Blister has an image to keep up, especially if she wants to keep Glacier on her side, so she won't get involved with Scarlet's affairs until there's an official war - fun fact, that's why Moorhen's been avoiding war almost to the point of insanity. So, like I said, I'll talk to some dragons, and negotiate a prisoner release." With this, Beetle nodded and disappeared into hole in the cave leading back to the main hall.

Reed walked close to his brother. "Well," he said, a bit overwhelmed. "Apparently, we've gone from trying to rescue our siblings to trying to save our whole tribe. And a week ago, I was wondering why our jobs were so boring." Reed stared after where Beetle had left, not saying anything for a while, and then he asked, "Do you really think it'll be that easy?"

Clay looked, along with Reed, at where Beetle had disappeared. "No," Clay said, after a few moments of thought. "I mean, Beetle's _really_ high up in the Outclaws. If anyone can get us into the Night Kingdom, it's probably her. But I just can't see the Nightwings just letting our siblings go. If they were that worried about war, why wouldn't they just throw our siblings back into the Mud Kingdom where the rainforest borders it?"

Reed shook his head. "Yeah," he affirmed. "If Scarlet taught me anything, it's that nothing is easy. There's always a catch."


	24. Part 2: Chapter 4

After a whole lot of waiting around and doing nothing, Clay fell back asleep and woke up the next day, wondering if his time spent in this Outclaw base was going to be like the time he spent in the Sky Kingdom, at least in the sense that most of it would be spent waiting. Beetle then came into the two's room and erased those worries straight from Clay's head.

"Hey," she said, barging into the brothers' room without a hint of respect for privacy. "I talked those couple of dragons. The response was... unusual, to say the least. Apparently, they need to discuss what they want to do about your siblings. So you might be here for a little while longer. I still think we can get your siblings out of there just fine, though."

Clay's head was spinning, as he had just woke up, Beetle was talking choppily and quickly, and because he had heard enough of Beetle's words to realize that the hybrid had already discussed their siblings' situation with the Nightwings, in a time span that seemed much too short.

Reed, still on the ground, half-asleep, groaned a little, likely recalling his memories of the last time someone had told him to wait for his siblings. Beetle smiled at him. "Okay," she said, picking up on Reed's desire to not just sit and wait, "let me rephrase that. You might be _working_ here for a little while longer."

* * *

Somehow, after that, Clay had gotten roped into kitchen duty.

Well, it was more of "separate food into different categories and then give it to the dragons that came by" and less "kitchen" duty. The Outclaws had some live prey stored away, along with a couple of fruits that Clay quickly figured out were supposed to go to a Rainwing. All Clay had to do was, when a dragon came in for food, pick out a ration appropriate for the tribe the dragon came from, give it to him or her, and then mark one meal off that dragon's allotted daily meals. For example, a Sandwing would only get a lizard as a ration, while a Mudwing might get half a cow as one. It wasn't hard work, and Clay found himself dreading boredom after he realized this, but, luckily for him, that feeling never came.

About half an hour after Beetle had dumped Clay in the Outclaws' dining hall - a dingy little room with only two, plain, wooden tables to its credit - a rather downcast Seawing found his way into the hall. He took a large, exotic-to-Clay fish and devoured it quickly, but he didn't leave immediately, saying something about being on break for the morning. Clay managed to strike up a conversation with the dragon, who looked about his age, with the topic of his actions during the Sandwing War at the headline. The Seawing eventually said that he had never fought in the war, as he was a dragon who had grown up in the Talons, outside the reign of any kingdom, and that was why he was so interested in Clay's war stories. "I mean, not being in the war was great and all," the Seawing had said, "and I didn't mind growing up in the Talons, especially since my dad was leader of it. But after the war, Blister got tired of my dad being one of Pyrrhia's biggest rallying points against her, and killed him - and my mother, too, for good measure - at the start of the Great Defense, you know, when Blister brought that army in to destroy the Scorpion Den and then Thorn and the Talons not on Blister's side drove her off. I managed to get behind Thorn's lines before Blister killed me, but, well, my parents didn't make it, and I learned, quite quickly, that I was kind of babied for a majority of my life, being the son of the Talons' leader and all. I've had to grow up and take care of myself for a while, now, and it kinda has me wishing that I had learned more about the real world when I was young."

Clay and the Seawing talked for a while longer before the Seawing had to leave for some other job. Thankfully for Clay, almost directly after this, dragons started filing in for lunch - the Seawing and the Mudwing had literally talked for hours. The dragons making their way into the dining hall, at the very least, allowed Clay to get a sense of, if not the physical size of the Outclaw base, at least the size of the populous in the Outclaw base.

First, Clay counted four Skywings who made their way into the dining hall, their attitudes ranging from aggressive and gruff (Kestrel) to actually not that mean, to the point where some conversation was able to be made (Blitz, who told Clay that she could never go anywhere close to Scarlet again, so she was staying here for her own safety).

At one point after this, Webs came into the dining hall with an Icewing at his side, who the Seawing introduced as another close partner from his Talons days. Before Clay could even introduce himself, however, a Sandwing yelled the name "Hvitur" from the hallway leading into the dining hall, and the Icewing sighed and turned back to deal with whoever had called his name. As Hvitur left and quickly got into an argument with whoever the Sandwing was, Clay managed to engage Webs in conversation, eventually turning the topic to the Seawing's missing wing.

"That?" Webs had asked, looking back at his missing appendage as he spoke. "I got hit in an explosion - a Dragonflame Cactus. I obviously avoided the brunt of the blast, but I had thrown my wing out, and the flames caught it, pretty much instantly destroying it. What was left was quickly amputated when Outclaw doctors figured that the thing was worthless, anyway."

"But you called it an act of valor," Clay replied, interested in Webs' story.

Webs chuckled a bit. "My wing was out to distract one of Blister's troops from dealing with the cactus. I had been the one that thrown the cactus, ironic as that sounds, during part of the Great Defense of the Scorpion Den. It had landed near one of Blister's commanders, but if I hadn't been there, a dragon could of picked it up and thrown it away - we had a delay mechanism on the explosion, of course. I leaped in front of the cactus and Blister's commander to block that commander's guard - a spontaneous choice, more directed by the fact that I would be dead anyway if Blister took the Scorpion Den then any actual courage. I only had to fight off guards for a few seconds before the cactus blew, and the commander was killed. But some of the burst hit me, as well as some of the spines those plants shoot out, and it rendered my wing unusable. I actually would have been killed afterwards, so bad was I hurt, if Kestrel hadn't joined the fight; she almost dragged me out of there, despite my disabling injury."

"And that made you more courageous?" Clay asked, at the same time turning half of his attention to a Seawing that had walked in. However, before the Seawing could make it to Clay and food, Hvitur and the Sandwing's argument, which was still going strong, distracted the aquatic dragon, and soon it was a three-way argument instead of a two-way one.

Webs hadn't said anything as this had happened, but now he said, quietly, "Not really. Sure, I can talk back to Kestrel. That's because I know that part of her - no matter how far down that part is - cares for me, just the slightest bit, and that allows me to be comfortable next to her. But I'm still a coward. Hvitur and Kestrel had to carry me away from the Scorpion Den because I was getting nervous about Blister's raids there, especially after another good friend, with a condition similar to mine, was killed by one of them. I'm here because I don't want to fight, at least in the sense of talons and claws and life and death. No one cares about this part of Pyrrhia, so all I have to do here is just some logistics work, as well as harboring any escapees, like you."

Right as Webs finished, Clay was surprised by a shout. Hvitur was yelling, much louder than any of his speech before, "What happened last time we let him learn about one of our secret bases? Cloudstriker was almost killed!"

"Hvitur, just because an Icewing thinks differently than you-" started the Sandwing, before Hvitur cut back in.

"He doesn't think differently! He is different! No Icewing can't give a detailed summary of our hierarchy; it's drilled into our brains for our entire childhood!" The Icewing looked at the Seawing for support, and the Seawing gave it.

"At the very least, can we agree that there is no reason for Cirrus to know about this base?" the Seawing questioned. "It seems logical to me, and if it pleases Hvitur to keep him in the Scorpion Den-"

"Oh, so now you're taking Hvitur's side, huh? Coelacanth, our organization is based on trust, so I say that we should trust Cirrus!" the Sandwing angrily yelled.

"There is no harm," Coelacanth said, slowly and clearly, almost sounding as if she was repeating herself, "in having Cirrus staying in the Scorpion Den. Hvitur believes the Icewing is untrustworthy, and, personally, I am more inclined to believe Hvitur's judgement on matters of Icewing nature than you. Now, I've said my last words on this subject. I'm eating." With this, Clay was forced to find another large fish for the Seawing, and Hvitur and the Sandwing broke their argument off with Coelacanth's leave.

Hvitur actually turned out to be fairly personable, an interesting trait for a dragon from a normally frigid tribe. But the Icewing, along with Webs and the rest of the dragons, left to go tend back to their jobs quickly after Hvitur had finished devouring a seal (from where the Outclaws had got it, Clay could only guess). However, two Mudwings eventually entered after the previous group of dragons left, and the three dragons quickly struck up conversation, feeling the tribe bonds pulling. Clay quickly learned that the two were sisters, and that the rest of their troop had been killed, one by one, during the Sandwing War, until the eldest one alive took her sister and disappeared into the Talons, which soon morphed into the Outclaws.

Clay was able to bring up the subject of the imminent war with the two, and the two sisters confirmed Beetle's sentiments from the previous night. "Blister's evil," one sister had said with such sincerity that Clay couldn't help but believe her. "Coral's being manipulated by her pretty much all the time. Scarlet doesn't need to be manipulated - she generally does what Blister asks simply because she enjoys doing evil things. With those two allies behind her, Blister can force any policy she wants."

"Yeah, and right now, Moorhen is Blister's biggest enemy," the other sister had said. "Moorhen will work with Blister, but only when she likes Blister's terms. Blister doesn't want that; she wants complete control over our tribe. Which is why we worry about Glacier, too. Officially, Glacier is friends with Blister, but in reality Glacier rules so far north that she really doesn't need to do anything Blister says, and both of them know it. There's rumors that Blister doesn't even want Glacier ruling, and instead wants a figurehead as Icewing Queen, although how Blister would manage to put some other Icewing who isn't Snowfall - who I've heard doesn't like Blister at all - on the throne is beyond me."

After a few more words of conversation, Clay's biggest surprise of the day so far came: a Rainwing. He had his head down, as if he was tired, and his scales were a dull shade of yellow-orange. He almost pushed the Mudwing sisters out of his way and mumbled, "Give me food."

Clay handed him the fruit, and watched as the Rainwing moodily strolled over to one of the tables, plopping himself down without a word. There was no question: this Rainwing was _grumpy_ , on a level rivaling some of the Skywings Clay had met over the years. Weren't Rainwings supposed to be friendly and kind and happy? "He needs sun time," one of the Mudwing sisters whispered, explaining his condition to Clay a bit. "A lot of the Rainwings in the Outclaws refuse to take any, because they think it makes them lazy. But that isn't true; Rainwings need sun to keep healthy, and even though it does help them focus when they don't have it, without it they start to turn grouchy, and their camouflage becomes less powerful, along with their venom. It's kind of sad, actually, what dragons like him are doing to themselves."

There were a few more sentences exchanged before the two Mudwing sisters left, but before long, Reed filed in, looking tired, followed closely by Beetle. "Clay," Reed breathed, melodramatically, "I've literally been cleaning stuff all day, and I am _starving_. Three Moons, I never knew keeping things clean was so _hard_."

Clay managed to find a good portion of food for his brother, and handed it him. "When do you break?" Reed asked. "Beetle said she let us have the same break times." Clay vaguely remembered being told this, and decided that it was probably fine to stop working for an hour or two to join Reed in conversation. He picked a good chunk of meat for himself, and then walked over to Beetle, who was talking with the Rainwing in what looked like a small argument.

"You have to give yourself some sun," she was cooing, in a voice so unlike her own, one that was full of caring and comfort and one that was, well, slow.

"Why?" the Rainwing snapped, glaring at Beetle. "I don't _want_ sun! All the sun gave the Rainwings was a false sense of security that let the Nightwings come and destroy everything! It only makes us lazy and stupid and worthless!"

"And no sun makes you sick," Beetle argued. "You all need sun; the best Rainwing Outclaws I know all bask in it at least once a day. Even Mangrove, I know, has sun time every day."

"Mangrove's different!" the Rainwing argued back. "He was active even when he wasn't a Talon! He was one of the only Rainwings to notice something going wrong when the Nightwings were preparing to attack! And he managed to get out of the rainforest before the Nightwings completely took it over! I'm not Mangrove, okay!? Sun doesn't empower me, it hurts me! That's all it does!" With this, the Rainwing slammed his tail on the floor and almost bolted out of the dining hall, Beetle's eyes following him, a sort pity within.

"He needs sun time," was what she repeated, shaking her head a little, before turning to Clay and Reed, who were still standing awkwardly next to the hybrid. "A lot of Rainwings in the Outclaws have this weird conception that the sun is why their tribe was unprepared when the Nightwings attacked, and that the sun is why their tribe was crushed when the Nightwings came in, and that the sun is the epitome of evil. That just isn't true; they _need_ sun to do pretty much anything. It's not a curse, it's just a fact of their biology."

"So, on that happy note," Beetle said, lifting herself up to better talk to Reed and Clay. "Let's transition to your siblings. I've been thinking, and I think I can tell you one thing for sure: something's up."


	25. Part 2: Chapter 5

"Here's the deal," Beetle said, as Clay and Reed sat down close to her. "Your siblings aren't under the jurisdiction of the Nightwing military. I didn't think much of it when I heard it last night, but after a bit of thought, I've realized that their situation makes no sense."

"What you have to understand is that the Nightwings are just one big military, nowadays," Beetle continued, tapping her talons on the table in thought. "So any dragon that isn't a member of the kingdom should be put under military control. One of the dragons that I talked to last night? He's the Commander of the Nightwing Armies, which almost translates, in their language, to the word 'king.' He told me that he wanted to help, but that he lost jurisdiction of your siblings to someone else in his government, and that the dragon currently holding jurisdiction over your siblings wants to talk with _you_ , specifically." At this, Beetle nodded her head towards Clay, confusing the Mudwing. What could the Nightwings possibly want from _him_?

"So, _hang on_ ," Reed interjected, staring at Beetle with a bewildered expression. "You talked to the Commander of the Nightwing Armies, who is apparently one of the most important dragons in the entire Nightwing Kingdom, last night? Did you see us coming? Was he already coming? Because I'm certain that this Commander of the Armies does not walk out of the rainforest every day to have a discussion with Outclaws." That was a good point, too, Clay realized. Before, Clay had just been happy that the communications had gone so quickly, but now things were starting to feel suspicious.

Beetle eyed the two Mudwings, before saying, "You know, I trust you two. I think I can explain all this tonight. For now, though, focus on your jobs. Remember, you're on break, not dismissed from work."

* * *

"So, uh, I've been thinking," said Reed, a bit hesitantly. "You said that the Commander of the Nightwing Armies couldn't get our siblings out of the Night Kingdom. Does that mean that, maybe, the queen of the Nightwings wants our siblings, and that's why they're stuck there?"

This one question provoked _way_ too much thought from Beetle, especially since it had been a "maybe" question. The hybrid, who had been organizing a couple of things in her temporary room, stopped completely, and looked at Reed, her eyes showing obvious thought. Eventually, she said, uncharacteristically slowly, "In a sense. And don't ask anything more about that, okay? I'm actually not allowed to answer anything about the Nightwing Queen, because if I do they might sever relationships with me and the rest of the Outclaws. The Nightwings are useful to keep in touch with, and so I can't have that."

Beetle turned her attention away from Reed and back to her room. It was a small, guest room, not meant for any permanent living, suitable for a dragon who never stayed in the same place for too long. There was a bed, and a stand with a small bag on it, and Beetle was organizing a few scrolls that she had received throughout the day, but other than that, the room was remarkably empty. The hybrid had brought the two Mudwings here right after Clay's kitchen duty expired, about half an hour after dusk, but still hadn't told them how they were going to magically communicate with the Nightwings.

"So, let me ask you something," Beetle said, lifting herself from her now organized scrolls, signaling the start of a conversation. "Other than killing Blister, how could the Outclaws overthrow her?"

"Kick her out of the Sand Kingdom and stop her from ever coming back?" Reed guessed.

"Sure," Beetle said, turning herself towards the two Mudwings. "Any other way?"

"Isn't there an artifact or something that lets the Sandwing Queen be, well, the Sandwing Queen?" Clay asked, a vague memory on his mind. Yes, it was something that proved the worthiness of the Sandwing Queen, or something in that field.

"Yes," Beetle replied, pleased. "The Eye of Onyx. I'm sure you remember that it was stolen by a scavenger at the start of the Sandwing War. Blister can't be a true queen without it, but, on the other hand, any queen _we_ would put up there wouldn't be true, either. Because of this, both Blister and the Outclaws have been hunting, frantically, for the Eye of Onyx."

"Blister has the advantage, by far. She's got more allies than us, which means more dragons combing Pyrrhia for that one little amulet. But for all her smarts, Blister's stupid. She thinks that force, or manipulation, can get her everything. But sometimes, it pays to be really and truly nice."

Beetle had started making her way over to her bag on the shelf. "There's a scavenger den relatively close to Jade Mountain," the hybrid explained. "About a year ago, when the war was still going on, I figured that place would be the most likely place for the scavengers to hide the Eye of Onyx after they had stolen it. Now, Burn had already come through that den, destroying a good portion of it in the process of looking for the Onyx, but nothing had turned up. That didn't deter me. I thought that maybe the scavengers had managed to hide it from any dragon, and the only way to get it back would be to, basically, ask them for it."

"You asked scavengers for the Eye of Onyx?" Clay asked, incredulously. Were scavengers even smart enough to comprehend a request like that?

"It wasn't easy," Beetle replied, now digging through her bag, looking for something. "They're really scared of dragons, and I even had a couple of them attack me at first. What I had to eventually do is keep giving them gifts, like food and treasure, and they slowly started to listen to me. I showed them a picture of the Eye of Onyx and tried to use signs to communicate, but few of them seemed to even know what the artifact was. I was disappointed, but I kept trying to communicate with them and find any clues related to the Onyx's whereabouts. And eventually, they trusted me enough to give me something stolen from the Sandwings all those years ago, although it wasn't the Eye of Onyx. It was this." With that, Beetle brandished a small, blue sapphire from the inside of her bag.

Reed and Clay sort of stared at it, blankly, for a while, before Reed asked, "Okay, two questions. First, what _is_ that, exactly? Second, scavengers just _handed_ you some treasure? I thought scavengers were almost suicidally protective of their treasures."

Beetle smiled. "They didn't just _hand_ me their treasure. I managed to project how useful this would be to me, and how desperately I needed it, and there was also a small trade, as well. They're actually quite smart, scavengers, and, like I said, they like me quite a bit now. In fact, I went there a few weeks ago, and they had drawn a big mural of me on one of their little huts. They think of me as some incredible, friendly dragon, one that they can trust, and I certainly am not going to do anything to make them lose that trust." Beetle had grown a smile across her face at the telling of this story, and Clay saw some excited youngness in the way she spoke. Clay realized something that he could only find amusing: Beetle, the feared Outclaw, had a soft spot for _scavengers_.

"As for what this is, well, it's an old animus-touched object: a dreamvisitor," Beetle continued. "It lets you go into other dragons' dreams, as long as you've met them before. That's how I've been communicating with the Nightwings. It's how I talk with my mom and coordinate with her when I'm always moving around. And it's how _you're_ going to communicate with your siblings."

With that, Beetle almost shoved the artifact into Clay's claw, saying, "I want you to talk to one of your siblings, and ask them if everything really is okay. If it is, I'll figure out what's going on and get a prisoner release tonight, I promise. If not, then I'm going to being yelling at a couple Nightwings tonight, and that prisoner release might not be so smooth. Just think of one of your siblings, and shut your eyes. They should be asleep already."

Clay, a bit overwhelmed, quickly thought the first name that came to his mind - "Crane," the sibling he was most worried about - and did as instructed, and suddenly, with a bit of a lifting sensation, found himself back in the Mud Kingdom. Clay took a look around. There weren't any huts, and instead just some mud and marsh plants and more mud; it looked almost like his old patrol zone. Clay could hear a river close to him, and turned his head towards it, and, surprisingly, found Crane staring at the body of water, looking a bit downcast.

"Crane!" called Clay, feelings of joy quickly filling him. She was _okay_ ; she looked perfectly fine. Clay's youngest sister whipped her head around and stared at him. Clay ran towards her, wanting to embrace her, but when he made it to Crane, he found himself phasing through her with a bit of a twist in his stomach.

Crane, confused, backed away from Clay, and asked, "What, what is-"

"Crane, it really is me," Clay replied, regaining himself from the surprise of just having gone through his sister. "I'm using a dreamvisitor - it lets you go into someone else's dream."

At this, Crane's mouth turned up in a smile, before it suddenly disappeared, and she asked, worriedly, "Is Reed… is he really dead? The Skywings told us he was dead…"

"He's fine; he's here with me," Clay responded, to Crane's joy. "Look, Crane, we're both at an Outclaw base in the southern part of the Sky Kingdom, trying to get you out of the Night Kingdom - long story, there. One of the commanders here wants me to ask if the Nightwings are treating you well, because she's not sure they are."

"We're being treated fine," the younger Mudwing said, softly. "But they won't let us leave. I think they know about your scales, Clay, and they're trying to draw you in, because they want to know about them. They're worried about the Skywings, and any defense they can get against them or their fire is sought after, desperately."

Of course, Clay realized. The Nightwings were a tribe of mind-readers and future-seers; how could they not know about his scales? That was why the Nightwings were interested in him coming over to the kingdom, because they wanted to experiment on him, and use him.

"Well," Clay said, not knowing where else to take the conversation, "we'll try to get you out of there and back home. I promise. Don't give up hope."

"You really are Clay?" asked Crane, stepping forward as Clay stepped back. Clay noticed the edges of the trees around Crane starting to blur; his sister was waking up. "And Reed really is okay?"

"Yes," Clay smiled, trying his best to make Crane feel safe and confident. "I really am your Bigwings, Crane. I mean, we're in a dream, but I'm not part of it. I'm the dragon that saved you from that Icewing, who comforted you after your fire hit and killed that Sandwing a year before Burn died, and I was that dragon who chased after you, straight into Scarlet's talons, in order to rescue you. I'll help you, and Sora, and Marsh, and Umber, and Pheasant with any risk to my life. I promise you, Crane, that I am Clay."

With another smile from Crane, and a quick "Thank you," Crane's dream suddenly flushed white, and Clay felt himself lifting away from his sister, and soon he was falling back into the Outclaw base, Beetle and Reed watching at him.

"Crane says that she and the rest of the troop are being treated fine," Clay said, knowing what the question would be, only vaguely noting that he had fallen to the ground sometime in the process of being in Crane's dream. "But they aren't being released because of my scales - the Nightwings want to study them."

"Your scales?" Beetle questioned, raising her eyes.

"I'm fireproof," Clay admitted, not seeing a point trying to hide it from the Outclaw now. "It's a rare Mudwing trait. And, apparently, the Nightwings want to develop something from my scales, or at least try, to defend against the Skywings, who-"

"Give me that!" Beetle interjected. Her face had contorted more and more with fury as Clay spoke, until she had angrily ripped the dreamvisitor from Clay's talons. She muttered a name Clay didn't catch before slumping over, going into someone else's dream. Clay noticed the hybrid jerk a little almost consistently, as if in an argument within the dream. Eventually, after a good many minutes, Beetle blinked, but held up her talon before falling back into the trance again, apparently directing herself to someone different. After a few more minutes, Beetle opened her eyes again, and took a breath. She had fallen to the ground in her trance as well, and now she got up, staring at the two Mudwings.

"Remember when I said you didn't want to waltz into the rainforest?" Beetle asked, with a sigh.

"Yeah," Reed replied, taking a moment to glance back at Clay.

"Well, guess what?" Beetle replied. "If you want to get your siblings back, then we're going to waltz into the rainforest tomorrow."


	26. Part 2: Chapter 6

"Drag Banana out into the sun if you have to," Beetle was ordering Hvitur. "He _needs_ sun, and I refuse to let him just hurt himself without doing anything about it. So make sure he gets sun, even if you have to sit on him while he thrashes around."

Clay took a moment to glance back at Beetle, who was conversing with the three base commanders - Webs, Kestrel, and Hvitur - who were standing slightly outside the entrance of the Outclaw base. After a few more words and orders, Beetle, along with Clay and Reed, would lift into the air, away from the base, and towards the rainforest. Clay couldn't help but feel nervous, even if Beetle was coming with them. Apparently, Beetle had talked with the dragon who had Clay's siblings under his control, and had argued for their release. This mystery Nightwing had eventually agreed, on the condition that Clay would at least come to the rainforest and talk. Beetle had accepted the offer, saying that she knew that those terms weren't even that bad, on the additional condition that she would come with the Mudwings as an escort. "I know the rainforest," Beetle had assured them. "I've been there before. I promise you'll be safe with me."

"Kestrel," Beetle transitioned now, bringing Clay back to the present. "How are Skywing patrols looking?"

"Scarlet's dispatched a few patrols down here," Kestrel answered. "That being said, most Skywings sent after these two were sent towards the Mud Kingdom. They're still searching for them there, although it won't be long before Scarlet realizes that they didn't go back to Moorhen and sends troops towards the Night Kingdom, looking for them."

"We'll be in the rainforest by the time that happens," Beetle said, before turning to Clay and Reed. "And we'll have bigger things to worry about. That being said, Skywings pose the greatest threat to our journey until we make it to the rainforest. Our goal is to avoid any detection. If we _are_ detected, we will not keep going to the rainforest, we will instead turn around and retreat back to here. Warm up your wings, now."

"Stay alive," Kestrel said, in a rough, yet surprisingly not-completely-aggressive tone.

"It was a pleasure," Hvitur added, bowing his head slightly.

"If you ever need refuge from anyone - if, for example, Scarlet continues to pursue you after you make it home to the Mud Kingdom - the Outclaws will welcome you," Webs said, nodding.

And in that second, Clay couldn't help but feel that everything he'd ever heard about the Talons, and about the Outclaws - that they were horrible, murderous anarchists - couldn't have been true. They might be violent, but wasn't Blister violent, too? If a dragon was to be violent, why not work to any ideal such as peace? So what if their ideas were radical? Sometimes, weren't radical ideas necessary?

"Dragons!" ordered Beetle, opening her wings, her bag with the dreamvisitor - and a couple dozen throwing claws, as well - within fixed like a necklace on her body. "Take off now! Circle around, then follow my lead!"

* * *

Clay noticed the air get warmer as he flew farther south and out of the mountains, and he watched the signs of autumn slowly disappear. It was a dull flight, really, with Reed and him both too nervous to talk, although Beetle tried to encourage conversation. One thing Clay did do was take a lot of time to think about Beetle. Once again, dragons were surprising him. Beetle was supposed to be a dangerous killer, acting merciless towards anyone in her way, but all Clay could see was a relatively nice dragon with a rough, Outclaw-forged exterior. In a sense, she wasn't that different from Peril. And after that thought, more thoughts about Peril kept forcing themselves into Clay's mind. Had she avoided trouble from Scarlet? If so, what was she doing now? If not, then what would Scarlet have done with her? And before Clay knew it, he had flown over a mountain, and the rainforest was in front of him, a big green mass sprawling out and out, forever and forever and forever…

Beetle suddenly ordered, "Fly low, you two. There are Skywings over there." With that, the Sandwing hybrid lowered herself closer to the ground. Reed and Clay followed.

"Yes, I don't think it would play out very well if a group of Skywings saw us," Reed said. "Where are they, though? I can't see them."

"To your right," Beetle said, gesturing. "They're still pretty far off, and I doubt they saw us, so don't worry too much."

Clay looked over his right shoulder. Past all the mountains and cliffs and trees, he saw a couple of vague, red shapes in the air at least five miles off, but they were definitely Skywings.

The two Mudwings and the hybrid landed near the edge of the rainforest. There were sounds of so many animals emanating within, and the place was just so big, that Clay couldn't ever imagine himself finding his way to some hidden village without a guide, which, thankfully, Beetle had arranged for during the previous night with her dreamvisiting.

"Here's where we stop and wait for our escort," Beetle said, her eyes still half on the Skywing patrol in the distance as she moved a bit closer to the rainforest. The three dragons walked under some tree cover, hiding themselves from the Skywing patrol, which Beetle was still mumbling about. "They're so far out…" she said, distracted. "They're almost on Nightwing territory. That seems rash, even for Scarlet."

"You're telling me," stated a voice, and Clay jerked his head over to see a Nightwing coming out of the rainforest, his figure becoming more defined as he left the rainforest's shade. He was slightly larger, and therefore probably older, than Reed and Clay. As he came into the sun, loose-fitting metal armor covering a good majority of the Nightwing's body shined, although his wings and head were still uncovered with metal. He also was carrying a bag similar to Beetle's, in the same fashion as the Outclaw, and, for some reason, Clay felt his eyes drawn to a bracelet that the Nightwing wore. It was silver and was worn with the Nightwing's armor, having emeralds, sapphires, and the Nightwing emblem emblazoned on it: likely a military symbol of some sort. Clay looked a bit harder, and saw a shiny black stone in the Nightwing's bracelet as well, right in the middle of the emblem, although Clay had never seen anything like it before.

"Scarlet's acting completely unreasonable, and we can't do anything about it," the Nightwing muttered. "'Give me information!' Well, okay then, as long as you- 'Oh, give me more!' Oh, well, all right, here's more, now can we- 'Oh, that's not enough, why don't you hand over your weapon design?' But, Scarlet, we- 'No buts, or would you like me to burn your precious home down?' You know, I'm starting to see why she's one of the most hated queens in Pyrrhia."

Beetle turned her eyes to the Nightwing. "Hi, Deathbringer," she greeted, not reacting to the Nightwing's outburst. "Thanks for this. I'm sorry for-"

"Don't be sorry," Deathbringer interrupted, focusing on Beetle, the two obviously having made an acquaintance before. "Pleasure's all mine. Although, personally, I would rather have brought the Mudwings out here, like you said, but a certain someone wants to talk with these two a little too much, not caring about our biggest indirect allies' possible demise. But, as it stands, I figured I'd give you the best protection the Nightwing Kingdom can offer as we make our way to the castle." It was comforting to Clay to know that, at the very least, some Nightwings seemed to fulfill Beetle's philosophy, and didn't seem to want the Mudwings to go war, and were likely to help his siblings get out of the rainforest and back home.

"I mean, my daily life is filled with so much peril and moments of almost dying," Deathbringer was continuing, "that I thought, 'What's the harm of putting myself in _even more_ danger?'"

"The fact that you're the most important dragon in the Nightwing Kingdom, Mr. Commander of the Nightwing Armies, and the fact that if you die, very bad things will happen?" asked Beetle, raising her eyes at him a bit.

Deathbringer laughed, at the same time glancing at the two Mudwing brothers, analyzing them in about a second. "The most important dragon in the Nightwing Kingdom? No, that's not true, I can't even get five random Mudwings back to their home. Honestly, Beetle, I just think you're worried about me."

Beetle sighed, a bit of annoyance in her tone, and Deathbringer caught it. "Oh, you know it's true," Deathbringer said, suggestively. "You just can't ignore me. It's that Nightwing blood of yours, it's telling you to-"

"I, quite frankly, don't care what my Nightwing blood tells me to do," Beetle interrupted, with a tone of voice that made Clay think that Beetle had been through the routine before. "Deathbringer, I'm here to get these two's siblings out of your kingdom. And I'd appreciate it if you could get us started towards that goal."

Deathbringer smiled, then glanced back at the Skywing patrol, still flying in formation miles away. His smile quickly faded, before he said, "Yes, it would be very bad if those Skywings saw you, _one of the most wanted dragons in Pyrrhia_ , here, on our territory. The last thing we need is a war with the Skywings. We've got enough on our claws as is."

Deathbringer turned and started to lead the way into the rainforest, with Beetle following. The hybrid gestured for the Mudwings to follow, and then Reed and Clay followed the two lead dragons. As Clay moved forward, however, he heard a stick snap and instinctively turned to view the cause of the noise, thousands of possibilities rushing through his head: random animals, another Nightwing that had been hiding in secret, a Skywing soldier that had snuck up on them, undetected. The Mudwing didn't see anything, but he couldn't have imagined it, especially since Reed looked over at where Clay's eyes were, too. Clay squinted just a bit harder and saw the smallest bit of uncharacteristic pink near where the sound had originated from, and the Mudwing leaned just the tiniest bit forward…

"Control, Heliconia," Deathbringer called from almost right next to Clay, scaring the Mudwing half to death. At what point did Deathbringer sneak up right next to him? "If you make a mistake, don't keep making more."

"Sorry, sir," came an almost squeaky voice, the pink Clay was looking at vanishing back into the scenery again. But now Clay could see the signs of Rainwing camouflage - slightly wavering light, minute differences in the details of the scenery, slight color changes around the body of the dragon - and he realized, with a shock, that Deathbringer had known all along about the hidden dragon. Was this Rainwing his _partner_?

"It's okay," Deathbringer said, addressing the hidden dragon, turning back to the rainforest. "Just work on it." Deathbringer retook his lead at the head of the group, and led the three other dragons towards the interior of the rainforest, not even bothering to explain the hidden Rainwing to his group.

Deathbringer led the way, and the Mudwings and Beetle had half-walked, half-crashed through a vague path in the rainforest for about half an hour. Heliconia hadn't followed, as far as Clay could tell, but the Mudwing couldn't help but search for other Rainwings, feeling confusion rise as he thought more and more about the hidden dragon. Using Rainwings for manual labor was one thing, putting them in the military was another. No, it wasn't another thing, it was another, completely different - as different as the sun and moon - and absolutely unexplainable thing. Clay's thoughts brought a question - well, many questions, actually - to his head, but then Deathbringer turned, and looked Clay and Reed directly in the eyes, and knocked Clay away from his thoughts.

"Now that we're away from that patrol, we need to talk," Deathbringer said. "Clay and Reed, right? Listen to me, going through this rainforest is incredibly dangerous. There are about seventy different species of plants, animals, or fungi that can do anything from making you puke to making you hallucinate to making your jaws get stuck together to killing you, even. Stick to the path, though, and you shouldn't run into these natural threats. Your main worry is actually the Tears of the Rain, a rebellion group calling not for the removal of Nightwings from the rainforest, but for an annihilation of the entire Nightwing tribe. If they see you with me, they might find you guilty by association and attempt to kill you. Running into them is unlikely, but to stay safe, I need you to promise that you'll follow my every order, you hear me?"

Clay and Reed had nervously agreed, and Deathbringer had turned back towards the way they were going. The group walked in silence for a few minutes before Deathbringer shouted, "Duck! Now!" Clay and Reed almost immediately hit the ground - Clay's heart pounding in fear - before he looked up and saw Deathbringer grinning. "Good," he had said. "Listen to me, and we should easily get to the river by night, if not the castle itself."

The Nightwing opened up after that, although Clay couldn't get any specifics about the Nightwing Kingdom from him. There was something about Deathbringer that made Clay nervous. Maybe it was the fact that he kept glancing around every minute or so, likely searching for something - something like other, less friendly hidden Rainwings. Maybe it was the fact that Deathbringer moved like a fighter, and seemed to be in an almost perpetual defensive stance. Maybe it was the fact that he was a Nightwing who obviously was hiding secrets - like the fact that he wasn't above working with Rainwings.

And apparently, Heliconia wasn't the only Rainwing working with Deathbringer. Deathbringer had been explaining why they weren't flying over the rainforest to their destination - apparently, there were too many Skywing patrols for the Nightwing to be comfortable - when the Nightwing suddenly swung his tail back, blocking Beetle and the two Mudwings' path, and yelled, "Reveal!" before he produced a shiny, steel weapon from his bag. In the next split second, a Rainwing revealed itself, flashing a dark blue, then a bright yellow, before turning its scales to a darker purple shade. And in the next split second, Deathbringer had flipped the weapon back into wherever he had produced it from. The process was so fast that Clay was still comprehending _what had just happened_ when Deathbringer spoke.

"Prismatic," he said, recognizing the Rainwing. "Why aren't you at the river?"

The Rainwing spoke in a feminine voice, saying, "Deathbringer, sir, the Eventide Bridge was destroyed just minutes ago, and I've been sent to inform you."

Deathbringer gave the Rainwing a "are you freaking serious?" face, before sighing in frustration. "Of course it is," he mumbled. "I don't even know why we keep bothering to repair the thing, considering it gets destroyed every other month. Tears of the Rain?" he raised his voice, addressing the Rainwing with his last sentence.

"No," Prismatic answered. "It was part of the remnants of the Eclipse."

At this, Deathbringer looked at Prismatic incredulously. "Really?" he asked. Prismatic nodded, a bit of disbelief in her posture as well, and Deathbringer waved his claw with obvious thought overtaking him. "Okay. Dismissed," he said, and the Rainwing nodded before fading back into the scenery.

Clay was very confused about the fact that he had just witnessed a Rainwing and a Nightwing talking together like equals, because he was pretty sure that _wasn't how things worked_ , but Beetle was interested in something else, saying, "I thought you destroyed that group."

"We did," Deathbringer responded, glancing up at the trees. "But there's still a couple members roaming around, causing havoc wherever they can. Three Moons, of all the times they could've picked for a resurgence, they had to pick today…"

Deathbringer spent a while mumbling things about stuff Clay didn't understand, and kept leading them in the original path they had taken. Reed eventually spoke up, asking, "Uh, what is the Eclipse?"

"Terrorist group," Deathbringer answered, simply. "Almost the antithesis of the Tears of the Rain. They're a bunch of Nightwings who still haven't been humbled by everything our tribe has been through recently and still think the Rainwings should be wiped out. For now, that's all you need to know. Three Moons, as things stand, we won't get past Eventide - and I won't get to explain anything to you two, properly - until tomorrow."

"Eventide?" asked Clay. "And what do you mean, explain things properly?"

"Eventide's our base at the river," Deathbringer replied. "Meant to protect the bridge over the river, although it isn't super successful at doing that, as you just heard. As for your second question, well, the Nightwings still prefer secrecy. We feel like we should save our secrets from you until he get you into the actual Nightwing castle, where we have better means of detecting spies - because we have such a problem with espionage here. But don't worry about that, you'll get a better answer to your first question in just a couple seconds; Eventide's coming up soon."

As Deathbringer said, only about fifteen minutes later, the two Mudwings came upon a bit of clearing. A river cut through the land in front of the group, and Clay quickly saw why the Nightwings needed a bridge: the tree cover would make it almost impossible to fly across. Branches were jutting out over the river at almost every elevation, meaning a dragon would have to fly incredibly close to the water to have a straight shot at getting across. If a dragon messed up the smallest bit, his or her wing would hit the water, and that dragon would probably be knocked into the river. Clay thought maybe they could swim across, but with another look he saw that the current was extremely, almost unbelievably fast - and who knew where the river led?

There were two stone buildings on the riverbank, one on each side of what had been a bridge a couple hours ago, but was now a plank of wood jutting out into the water for about twenty yards, at which point the wood turned black and charred, parts of this section still smoking as a few distant dragons - members of which tribe, Clay couldn't really tell - tried to quell the flames, and all the bridge past it gone, until the other side of the river, which was at least half a mile away. Clay could barely see a similar situation on the other side of the river unfurling, with just slightly less smoke coming of that side of the bridge compared to the side he was on.

There was a Nightwing soldier by the bridge's remains, nodding at Deathbringer as he approached. This Nightwing was also wearing metal armor similar to Deathbringer's, although instead of carrying a bag like Deathbringer's, the soldier had a crossbow strapped to his side, which brought a couple painful memories back from the Skywing Kingdom. The Nightwing spoke with Deathbringer for a couple seconds before the group's Nightwing escort turned back to his group.

Deathbringer told his group that a few Nightwings had swam down the river and shot fire on the bridge from underneath, in the middle the structure, destroying a good majority of the structure before the dragons at Eventide could put it out. "At this point, you have two options," Deathbringer said. "You can either wait for the bridge to get fixed - a week and a half, I'd say, of waiting. Or we can teach you how to cross the river the hard way."

"Is the hard way faster?" Reed immediately asked.

Deathbringer smiled. "If you learn fast. The art of branch jumping is not to be taken lightly."


	27. Part 2: Chapter 7

Clay did not learn fast.

In fact, the first seven times he tried jumping from one branch to another, he hit the branch too hard, broke it, and fell to the ground extremely ungracefully. After the first two falls, Clay was already sore and covered in bruises. After the first four, Clay just wanted to give up, and just risk flying across the river.

Sure, there were so many branches over the entire river that there would barely be any room to maneuver throughout the entire flight, with trees on the shore somehow reaching all the way across the river, creating a cover-all canopy of leaves and branches stretching all the way down to the river, to the point where there was only about a scavenger's hut's height of clearance over the entire body of water, but, well, that "barely" was there for a reason. The more Clay fell, the more that small amount of flying space across the river appealed to him, until Deathbringer must have noticed and called for Clay to stop climbing up trees to practice tree gliding. The Nightwing gracefully jumped from the branch he had positioned himself on and landed on the ground, before turning to look at Clay.

"You're distracted," the Nightwing stated. Clay had to remind himself that this was probably code for, "I've read your mind and know that you don't like what you're doing." That being said, Deathbringer was good on not letting on that he knew everything that Clay was thinking, probably to let the Mudwing feel more comfortable around him.

"I'm wondering why we don't just risk flying over the river," Clay replied. "I mean, even if I mess up and fall into the water, I can't really drown. Unless, you know, I stay underwater for, like, an hour."

"I'm not worried about you drowning. I'm worried about you scratching up your wings, rendering you flightless, or ripping open your skin, or gouging your eyes out - yes, you can go blind from flying through the forest incorrectly, but you'd be the first dragon I'd know to do something that embarrassing if it happened to you - and, most of all, I'm worried about you being swept downstream."

"You see, maybe half a mile downstream is a big clearing over this river," Deathbringer continued. "No insane tree cover over the river there like there is here, and it's nice and bright and sunny. So, why not go there? I'll tell you why: that's where the Tears of the Rain hang out. Always. You get swept downstream, you're getting swept into the talons of the Tears of the Rain. Quite frankly, now that I think about it, I'm kinda impressed that the Eclipse even let the river sweep them down that way, considering that them and the Tears of the Rain hate each other with a passion."

"Well, why not just cut away some of the branches here?" Clay asked, not giving up quite yet; he did _not_ want to continue falling out of trees. "That would make flying easier, wouldn't it?"

Deathbringer smiled. "Well, originally, we used that clearing I was telling you about to get across this river, not evening bother with a bridge," he said. "But after the Tears of the Rain came in, we had to change. You see, all this cover makes it hard for the Tears of the Rain to pelt us with acid from above. Plus, these are dragonbark trees. They're a bit different than the trees we've been practicing on. Obviously, they're huge, and their branches expansive, but they are also incredibly tough; a full grown Rainwing could fly into one of them at full speed, and the dragon would be the one hurt. They're, obviously, hard to get rid of, although, on the other claw, they make good a tree bridge."

After this, Clay finally admitted his downfall, although he was a bit confused about the concept of the "tree bridge," and half-climbed, half-flew back up the gigantic dragonbark trees covering the river, starting his next attempt at branch gliding. Clay and Deathbringer never totally climbed the trees, always staying at a middle point between the ground and the treetops. Clay vaguely remembered that Beetle and Reed were off jumping somewhere else, but Deathbringer hadn't worried about this split. According to him, he had sent a soldier to watch them, and apparently the Tears of the Rain weren't very active on their side of the river, although Clay still wasn't sure what this meant. Clay probably was distracted by these thoughts, because he slammed into a branch too hard, snapped it, and fell off his tree again.

After his sixth fall, Clay was wondering if branch jumping was even possible for Mudwings to do. Sure, Rainwings could do it, but Rainwings were smaller and lighter and more agile and more evolved to the rainforest than Mudwings. Sure, Nightwings could do it, but they were known to be smart, and probably could see the future, therefore knowing which branches were bad to jump on. But Mudwings were not built for jumping from tree to tree like they were monkeys.

But even when Clay voiced his doubt to Deathbringer, the Nightwing wouldn't let up. "If a fully armored Nightwing, about your size," he had said, gesturing towards himself, perched on a branch, his wings unfurled, flapping the smallest bit, giving him a bit of lift, "can do this, then you can do it too. It's just finding where the branch is strongest before you land on it, and not jumping on any branches that are too weak, and keeping your weight from bearing down too much on the branch."

"Maybe it's possible for a dragon who has been in the rainforest for as long as you," Clay complained, tired and cranky and just wanting to stop hurting himself. "But I'm a big dragon who has never done anything close to this in his life-"

"Clay, you're saying pretty much what the Nightwings said when they came into the rainforest," Deathbringer interrupted. "But it is possible. You kind of have to lift yourself away from the branch while placing yourself on it at the same time. In a sense, you don't ever land on a branch, you just touch down for a second, and then you're off again. It's much more similar to flying than jumping."

"So, I'm just flying through the forest?" Clay asked, a bit sarcastically, feeling that flying through the forest would be _so much easier_ than the work he was doing now. Or flying across a river, no matter the risk.

"You fly to a branch, redirect yourself without ever completely touching down, fly to another branch, and so on," Deathbringer replied, still managing to sound supportive despite the grumpy attitude Clay knew he had. "Sounds easy until you try it, I know. Look, I fell, too. A humorous sight: the greatest assassin in Pyrrhia - at least, before Mangrove came into the scene - sprawled out on the ground because he can't get from one branch to another without flying downwards in a tumble. Of course, I wasn't proud to the point where I wouldn't listen to the Rainwings - a couple of them snuck me tips while I was learning in exchange for me helping them, however that may be."

Clay wanted to ask about the Rainwings - he wanted to ask _many_ questions about the Rainwings - half-fueled by curiosity, half-fueled by the desire to do anything but fling himself off the tree he was _very precariously_ perched on and towards another branch. But Deathbringer cut Clay off before he could ask anything by motioning for Clay to start his tree gliding practice again.

Clay reluctantly moved himself towards where he could jump towards the branch, and then he heard a happy shout from a ways away. Clay glanced over and saw Reed, Beetle watching nearby, in view, balancing himself on a branch for a second before Clay's brother flung himself towards another one, and then another one, before the younger Mudwing lost his balance and toppled over on the fourth branch. But Reed didn't look disappointed when he got off the ground; he was yelling triumphantly; he had at least managed to do the process, partly.

Clay took a final look at his brother and jumped forward. There, the branch was obviously weak, and there, the branch looked a bit stronger. Clay glided slightly, then lifted his wings and hovered over the branch for a split second before touching down, letting the branch take part of his weight. But Clay, remembering Deathbringer's words, didn't put his whole weight on the branch, and managed to stay on the branch, stuck in a horrible position of being off balance and being not completely on the branch. But the branch held.

"Good!" Deathbringer had called, Clay feeling triumph in his chest; he had done it! "Keep going!"

Clay bent down, feeling the branch underneath him bend, but not break. The Mudwing pushed off, glided the smallest bit forward, slowed himself near the branch to position his claws on top of the thing, reached down and let his weight be held mainly by his wings, lowered himself closer to the branch, placed his back legs on the branch to stabilize himself, but he put too much weight on the branch, heard a loud crack, and then, before Clay even had a chance to correct his mistake, he was falling back to the ground, tumbling and hitting himself on about a half a tree on his way down.

"Well," Deathbringer said, above him. "You almost had it."

* * *

That night, camped out in a building at Eventide, an unfamiliar Nightwing came into the group's residence and pulled Deathbringer over to talk. Clay had met all the dragons working at his side of Eventide - two Nightwings and, with a good amount of surprise involved in the meeting, two Rainwings, including Prismatic, and this new dragon wasn't familiar. Clay was starting to get used to the presence of Rainwings everywhere, although he _couldn't_ understand why Rainwings were even out here in the first place, and Deathbringer refused to give him an explanation. As the conversation with the new Nightwing continued, Deathbringer's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything until after the Nightwing visitor saluted and left.

Deathbringer turned back towards the Mudwings from his standpoint, an open door that led to the outside rainforest. They were in one of the stone huts, the other being filled by the dragons on break from military work. The forest was dark outside, the melodious croaking of frogs, splashing of fish, humming of insects, and steps of patrolling dragons outside filling the air.

"What is it?" Reed murmured, half-asleep, next to a totally-asleep Beetle. "Are there any more evil groups in the rainforest that are coming to murder us?"

Deathbringer didn't really do anything, just looked out into the nighttime rainforest. Clay was starting to figure out Deathbringer: there was a mischievous, playful side to him and a contemplative, thoughtful one. Right now, the latter part was ruling. "Not really," the Nightwing said. "The Tears of the Rain and the Eclipse are the two biggest splinter groups out there, and the Eclipse isn't even that big anymore. They're both the same, though; one just does terrorist attacks against Nightwings, while the other does terrorist attacks against Rainwings."

"And then there's you," Beetle muttered, managing to scare Clay despite her words not even being that forceful. Maybe she hadn't been asleep. Maybe she never slept; she was an Outclaw, after all.

"Then there's us," Deathbringer repeated, not appearing to be that surprised at Beetle's speech.

Deathbringer didn't say anything for a minute, before he suddenly grimaced and said, "You know what? I've decided I don't care about any stupid Nightwing secret-keeping traditions right now. You two have had some of the worst luck I've ever seen with our local rebellion - or terrorist, with these groups they're both the same - groups, with the bridge here going out and all. If this keeps up, things are going to get bad, and you need to know what you're up against."

"We have two main fracture groups here," Deathbringer explained. "The Tears of the Rain and the Eclipse. The Tears of the Rain started as a group demanding Rainwing rights, and even managed to do some good for this place, dare I say it, but the group soon melded itself into something much more sinister. Some of the group's leaders wanted all Nightwings removed from the rainforest - be it by forceful removal or genocide. These radical ideals fractured the group into two parts, the peaceful Tears of the Rain, most of whom just want harmony in the rainforest, and the violent Tears of the Rain. The violent one is the one I talk about when I say the phrase "Tears of the Rain." They're the ones that destroy and the ones who murder."

"Then you have the Eclipse," Deathbringer continued. "After the Tears of the Rain started going insane, a few acts of horror against Rainwings rallied enough dragons together to create the Eclipse, bound by their hatred of the Rainwings. The group was never as organized as the Tears of the Rain, but they still managed to cause some trouble for a time before we rallied enough dragons together to destroy most of the group, although, as you can see, there are a couple remaining members still hiding in the rainforest."

"And who are you?" asked Clay, when Deathbringer had finished and had paused.

Deathbringer smiled, although it was a bit bittersweet. "The good guys," he said. "But, unfortunately, also the guys who are unable to tell you anything until we get to the Nightwing castle. But you've seen things, and I think you can figure out that we aren't the same Nightwings you've heard about. I've told you enough," Deathbringer interrupted as Reed made a move, likely to ask more questions. "Tomorrow. We'll get past Eventide, easily, and we'll be at the castle about three hours after noon. Then I'll tell you everything."

* * *

Clay understood what a tree bridge was now. Although it wasn't really a bridge, it was more of a bunch of strong branches grown out in a vaguely straight pattern. Deathbringer had brought the two Mudwings and Beetle up near the top of the trees, although the Nightwing wouldn't dare to go over the canopy with his three followers, for a variety of reasons. "Not only would it attract any Skywings nearby, it might also break the canopy," Deathbringer had replied when Clay brought this fact to Deathbringer's attention. "Might reveal the base. Not to one of the rebel groups, but to someone like Scarlet. I want as few outside dragons as possible to know about any of our military bases. So we're not risking going up there."

"Wow, Deathbringer," Beetle had said, giving Deathbringer something between a small smirk and a bit of actual surprise. "When did you get so worrisome?"

Deathbringer had smiled at this. "I'm not worrisome, I'm _responsible_ ," he responded, simply. "The Commander of the Nightwing Armies kinda has to be that way."

Now Deathbringer was leaping across the branches, hardly touching down, and wasn't even on the other side when Beetle ordered Reed to start crossing. Reed half-flew, half-jumped across the branches, less gracefully than Deathbringer, but still managing to get across. Beetle then told Clay to go, and the Mudwing's heart started pounding, visions of him messing up and falling into the river and flowing to the Tears of the Rains' talons filling his mind. Everything stopped at the Tears of the Rain, though; Deathbringer had painted the organization as irredeemable, but everything Clay had heard about the _Nightwings_ sounded irredeemable. No matter how good Deathbringer seemed, Clay didn't know who to trust; after all, Deathbringer was just one dragon, although apparently an important one. At this point, Clay was only putting so much absolute trust in the Nightwings because he _really_ wanted his siblings back.

 _Focus on gliding_. Clay's skills were shaky, at best, but Deathbringer had assured him that they would more than suffice. The Mudwing took a breathe, then a leap, and half-positioned himself on a branch, and when it didn't give way, Clay kept jumping, faster and faster, feeling adrenaline push through him, although after a while he became less terrified and more exhilarated. He was _doing_ it, and it was _easy_.

Deathbringer had jumped downwards, on the other side of the river already, and Clay saw his brother do the same thing, and then Clay was arching down, opening his wings up to generate the lift compensating for gravity's pull. These branches were less stable, but Clay still managed to get them to hold, and soon he was jumping down to Reed and Deathbringer, who were waiting for him on the ground. Clay hit the ground, Beetle at his side by the time he had regained himself from the drop, and they were across.

"That was _easy_ ," Clay breathed, looking back at the river, the body of water already half-concealed by the rainforest's foliage, the other buildings of Eventide already a few dozen yards away. No wonder Rainwings moved like this through the rainforest.

Deathbringer smirked a bit. "Well, we purposely train new tree gliders in harder environments than our bridge provides. The branches on the bridge are tough - most things about dragonbarks are. Anyway, we'll hopefully have the bridge up before you come back, and hopefully it'll stay up for long enough before someone destroys it again."

"Is this a common occurrence?" asked Reed, looking back at the river, where two more Nightwings were watching them, their emotions unreadable.

"Yes," Deathbringer answered simply. "We wanted to make a bridge to let dragons who have a hard time branch jumping get across the river easier, but since Rainwings and Nightwings built the structure together, it's a prime target for both the Tears of the Rain and the Eclipse. But we'll have time to talk about that more once we're at the castle. I'd say six hours. Come on, we're almost at your siblings."


	28. Part 2: Chapter 8

"Twenty minutes, max," Deathbringer said, Clay's heart racing a little. Only twenty minutes until he'd be at the Nightwing castle. Only twenty minutes until everything, hopefully, would make sense. Only twenty minutes until he'd see his siblings again. "And that's if you're slow. Keep up this pace, and it'll be fifteen. Push yourselves a little more, and it'll be ten. And if you're really desperate, we could take a few shortcuts and be there in five."

Deathbringer was still leading through the rainforest, although now Beetle had taken up the rear. The two experienced dragons were obviously nervous, although nothing seemed to ever come the dragons' way, other than trees and bushes and plants and more plants and _even more_ plants. Eventually, Clay had stopped worrying and just focused on the rainforest in front of him: the muddy ground that squished under his feet, the way leaves looked as light poured from the canopy above, the sound of insects, of birds, of branches rustling above him.

Only twenty more minutes - Clay looked a bit ahead, and thought that he saw what looked a clearing slightly ahead. The trees seemed to be less tightly packed together there, and it looked like more light was pouring down. Was that the dragons' destination?

"Hey, Clay, Reed? You see that group of bushes over there?" Deathbringer suddenly asked, relatively emotionlessly.

Clay looked, a bit surprised by Deathbringer's sudden words. There was indeed a group of bushes where Deathbringer had gestured, growing purple berries of some sort on it. Clay had no idea why Deathbringer had pointed it out, but the Mudwing figured Deathbringer would explain. Deathbringer did. In the most uproarious and undeviating way possible.

"Run towards it. RUN TOWARDS IT **NOW!** " At his words and with no more warning, Deathbringer reached into his bag and threw one of the weapons he had revealed earlier out of it, all in the span of about a second. The weapon flew towards the bushes, and then stopped suddenly, a splash of red revealing itself as a Rainwing, turning bright yellow in shock, lost its camouflage and clutched its pierced, bleeding throat in terror, before falling over, dying.

Clay didn't think, he just followed orders; the Sandwing War had made him good at that. He made it past the bleeding Rainwing and near the bushes before the forest started hissing. And he, Deathbringer, Beetle, and Reed slammed through the bushes before the world behind them exploded.

There was a huge bang of sound, sounding like five bolts of lightning striking down in the same place and then releasing its noise all at once. Dirt flew into the air, and the force of the explosion was large enough to reach the now sprinting group of dragons. Clay was almost knocked off his feet by the blast, although other than that he seemed to have avoided the burst. Beetle pushed Clay back up, forcing the Mudwing to keep running, before she hopped over to Reed, stabilizing Clay's brother as well. Past his ringing ears, Clay could hear a voice behind them shouting, "Kill Deathbringer and Beetle, but catch those Mudwings, if possible! They're valuable!"

There was a wicked crack, and one of the huge jungle trees started falling, although thankfully not towards Clay. There was a crash as the huge tree broke past other trees and a boom as it hit the ground, and around this time Clay could start hearing smaller things: the sound of the forest burning behind them, the sound of more orders from the authoritative voice who apparently wanted the Mudwings alive and yet was willing to throw bombs down at them, the sound of four terrified dragons running and crashing through the forest, and the sound of more dragons behind them, tree gliding. Clay glanced back, and saw Rainwings, not able to completely keep their camouflage with their speed, rushing after him, Reed, and the others, quickly, militaristically, and deadly.

The Tears of the Rain.

Even from his quick glance, Clay could tell these weren't the kind of Rainwings that lazed around in the sun all day, the friendly and joyful ones from the stories he had heard about the rainforest. These dragons were obviously trained in warfare, and were coming towards the fleeing dragons with a clear, terrifying ruthlessness in their movements; they wouldn't hesitate to use venom, Clay almost knew. A couple of the pursuing Rainwings even had straps on, likely holding weapons, although what weapons a Rainwing would need other than its fatal venom, Clay couldn't imagine.

Deathbringer was shouting orders: "Run right! It'll take us past a couple of the Tears, but it'll be more clear from foliage! Once we get out of the forest, we're heading for the wall! And don't fly, they'll have venom spitters up near the canopy!" Deathbringer turned, and then Clay followed, pushing past another couple plants, almost feeling the Rainwings in the trees above gaining on him and his party, and then Clay ran straight into the remains of a war zone.

This was what that clearing had been, Clay realized as he ran from the shaded parted of the forest into this new, half-destroyed area. The place had likely been a village at one point, but now it was a mess of toppled trees, burnt trees, collapsed structures, burnt structures, barely-standing structures, obliterated structures, cinders, craters, destruction, remains of dragons, horrors, and death. There was a fairly straight path through the remains of the village, leading to somewhere Clay couldn't see - hopefully the wall Deathbringer had mentioned - and now Clay, Reed, and Beetle were running down it next to each other, Beetle in the middle of the three, Deathbringer having fallen back and now following close behind.

"Bank away!" Beetle yelled, as she slammed Reed away from another one of the Tears' hissing explosives, falling from the treetops above. Clay flung himself right, away from Beetle and his brother and away from the bomb - some smoking, tan ball, different than a dragonflame cactus or any explosive Clay had seen during the war - and not but four seconds after he did this there was another explosion behind him. The noise was deafening, and the ground rumbled underneath him as if an earthquake had shot through the forest, but Clay was able to keep his balance, especially when Deathbringer pulled up next to him and helped the Mudwing stabilize. The Nightwing Commander didn't say anything, but managed to direct Clay closer to this mystical "wall," both dragons only vaguely aware of three Rainwings closing quickly through the treetops.

Clay and Deathbringer ran past another burnt down building and came across Reed, who was bolting for his life away from two more Rainwings, the tropical dragons following him on the ground with impressive speed. Clay wanted to ask where Beetle was, but he was sprinting and didn't have the breath. Another explosion rocked the rainforest floor, and another huge tree slowly started falling with a series of cracks. This time, however, the huge chunk of wood came towards them.

"Move it!" Deathbringer yelled, although Clay was already running as fast as he could. Clay glanced up and saw the tree falling, closer to him; it was going to crush him, falling on top of him from his left. The Mudwing concentrated and managed to run even faster. The falling tree was right on top of him, it would kill him, no, it would catch his tail, no, it slammed down behind him, barely missing Clay, but blocking some of the Rainwings' path, although Clay knew it was a temporary blockade, at best.

Deathbringer suddenly put on another burst of speed, pushing past the two Mudwings, and flung another weapon towards what must have been an invisible Rainwing. This time, though, the Rainwing was ready, and dodged the throwing claw, losing its camouflage and revealing a dragon with bright red scales. The dragon reared up - almost like the snakes Clay had occasionally seen in the swamp - and spat acid at Deathbringer, complete hate in the Rainwing's eyes, no remorse or hesitation present. Deathbringer turned without slowing down and let the acid hit his armor, preventing it from doing anything, and then slammed into the Rainwing, pummeling him in a battle that seemed completely unfair. "Go!" the Nightwing ordered as he wrestled the Rainwing to the ground, although whether Deathbringer wanted the dragon subdued or dead, Clay couldn't tell. "I can handle myself!"

Clay and Reed left Deathbringer, hardly having slowed down during the ordeal, and ran up another hill, past a building that looked like it had fallen from somewhere, and then Clay saw it: the wall. There was no doubt; there was a large, stone wall surrounding what looked like a small village, as well as a bigger building in the center - the castle, maybe? Even from where Clay was, the Mudwing could see dragons on top of the wall, likely guards or soldiers or other dragons that could save his life or his freedom or whatever these dragons wanted to take away from him. But as Clay ran, he heard thrashing in the trees above, and knew that more Rainwings were coming, so Clay tried to look past his burning lungs and run, and run, and run…

"Clay! Reed! Left!" came Beetle's voice, suddenly, and as Clay did as he was told he saw a Rainwing, camouflage fading as she attacked, coming towards him. Then Beetle came flying down from above - she had been tree gliding, Clay realized - and slammed herself straight into the Rainwing.

Clay had to admit, after seeing that Beetle wasn't some merciless killer, he had allowed a couple thoughts that she wasn't as good at fighting as others said enter into his mind. But Beetle quickly proved those thoughts wrong. She grabbed the Rainwing as she fell on her from above, then jerked her own wings and flipped the Rainwing over so that Beetle had positioned herself underneath. Then, with incredible power that Clay couldn't _believe_ had come from such a small dragon, Beetle kicked the Rainwing off of her and into a nearby tree, knocking the tropical dragon unconscious with the force of the impact alone. Beetle recovered extremely quickly, and soon was at Clay and Reed's side again, breathing from the effort, the three racing ever closer to the wall, where they had been spotted by a couple dragons. Clay could see a few dragons jump from the wall into the trees, making their way towards him, and realized that he was almost there, he was almost safe.

Then a dragon fell on Clay from above.

She slammed Clay to the ground, shooting acid at Beetle at the exact same time. Beetle jerked herself away, avoiding the venom, and the Rainwing took the time of Beetle's absence to swing herself at Reed, kicking Clay's brother in the chest, winding him. Beetle started running towards Clay, and Reed recovered and tried to swing himself at the Rainwing, but more Rainwings jumped down in front of them, blocking their path. Clay struggled and tried to use his strength to push the Rainwing off, but this Rainwing was deceptively strong, and then he heard the hiss, and Clay knew, somehow, what was coming before it did.

But he couldn't have imagined the pain the Rainwing's acid caused.

It felt like his scales had caught fire, like they were melting off, and all his scales did was hurt more and more as more of them melted, and the acid spread farther and farther over his back, where the Rainwing had shot him, likely just wanting to disable him, not kill him, because if Clay could remember anything through this pain, it was that Rainwing acid was only fatal if it got into the blood. That didn't mean it didn't hurt.

It felt like knives repeatedly stabbing into him, twisting, and then jerking out, only to come back in. It felt like having each and every one of his scales being ripped off with the feeling of a claw strike down to the bone with each one. For once in his life, Clay felt like he was on fire. It was horrible. It was unbearable. Clay wanted it to stop, and it wouldn't, and he was screaming, and it _hurt_ , and it wouldn't stop, it wouldn't, it wouldn't, it wouldn't ever, it would just keep hurting, and he was screaming in pain and horror and absolute pain...

The Rainwing who had attacked Clay was just watching him as he thrashed uncontrollably, trying to rub the acid off on the grass or something or _anything_ , the female dragon probably waiting for the pain to overtake Clay so she could drag him away, using him for whatever value the Tears of the Rain had hinted at before. Then Clay, despite the mind-blowing pain he was currently in, subconsciously heard a snap. Clay's eyes were watering from complete agony, but he could vaguely see the Rainwing fighting Beetle pitch with a shriek and hit the ground, and Beetle flinging herself at the Rainwing by Clay. There were other snaps, and Clay saw Reed's Rainwing fall over, an arrow in the dragon's shoulder, and the Rainwing next to Clay jerked out of the way as an arrow flew past where her heart had been a few seconds ago. Clay was only vaguely aware of Beetle rushing over him, and then Reed, and then more dragons following, and then talons pulling him over, and then he heard the sound of a Rainwing spitting acid again, and he panicked, because there was more pain coming, but how could there be more pain than this, and there was nothing he could do, and he felt Rainwing acid on his back, in the same place, and Clay was waiting for even more pain to come in the exact same place, and then… relief?

Clay blinked, trying to clear his eyes from tears that had managed their way into them. His back had stopped burning, and a blurry Rainwing was standing over him, his scales a mix of worried blue, anxious orange, and enraged red. Once Clay stopped screaming and thrashing, the Rainwing seemed to ignore him, focusing on the other Rainwing that had attacked Clay in the first place. Clay managed to turn, the only pain caused by his half-melted flesh, and saw Reed, Beetle, and two more Rainwings between him and the aggressive Rainwing, and Clay also saw Deathbringer, a ways away, but still Deathbringer, to this Rainwing's left, enough hate in his posture that Clay could see it from his half-dead state, a unfamiliar bag of sorts in one of the Nightwing's claws. But the attacking Rainwing seemed to only have eyes for the Rainwing standing over Clay, growling only one word: "Traitor."

"I'm the traitor!?" the Rainwing above Clay yelled, the one sentence holding so much more subtext of anger and betrayal and hurt, but Clay just couldn't catch the specifics; his head was pounding, and he felt sick.

Things were getting blurry again. Clay felt like he was about to pass out from his injuries, and the numbing pain, but Clay forced his eyes open, trying to listen, to understand what was going on. The attacking Rainwing had backed up a bit, apparently feeling outpowered. She shot one more glare at the Rainwing above Clay, before she said, not bothering to turn towards her addressed, "One day, Deathbringer. You won't be lucky forever."

"I don't know," Deathbringer responded, a very strong sense of hate in his voice despite the confident wording of the sentence. "I like to think I'm a very lucky dragon. Plus, I don't bother to rely on luck."

"Oh, of course, _Your Majesty_ , we all know you're absolutely perfect," the Rainwing said, although Clay suddenly had doubts if she was being sarcastic or not. No, it was just his burned out mind playing tricks on him, Clay told himself; Deathbringer wasn't the king, he couldn't be the king, he was the Commander of the Nightwing Armies, it was just an insult. The Rainwing turned towards Deathbringer, although Clay could still manage to see her glancing behind where he lay - crossbows, there had to be crossbows behind Clay. "I suppose we'll meet again."

"Yes, and one day, _you_ won't be so lucky," Deathbringer snarled, stepping towards the attacking Rainwing.

The Rainwing smirked, and then she dropped something from her talons, and there was a flash, and when it was over, she had gone. Now Clay was really having trouble focusing, the darkness was slowly creeping in, and he could barely hear a dragon behind him say, "Deathbringer, sir, should we send out searches?"

"No," Deathbringer said, moving towards Clay, the Rainwing above Clay moving away at the same time. "We need to get this Mudwing to safety. Take that Rainwing, too; he'll survive." Deathbringer was at Clay's side, now. "Plus, you all know that coward will run back to her Tears of the Rain for protection, where we can't attack them head on," Deathbringer was saying, looking at Clay's half-melted mess of a back, Clay almost gone, almost letting the blackness overtake him. All he could hear was one more hate-filled sentence, uttered by Deathbringer under the Nightwing's breath as he stared at Clay's injuries, more to the Nightwing's self than to anyone in the vicinity.

"But one day, Glory, you're going to pay."

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 **[Insert comment stating how amused I was at Jayfeattheris Awesome's review last chapter (remember, most of this is at least partially written out)] By the way, Glory is still named Glory for one and only one reason: because it would more confusing if she wasn't. I played around with her having a different name, but in the end it was simply easier and more dramatic for Glory to have the same name in this AU as the, uh, what is it called? SU (Standard Universe)? NU (Normal Universe)? _Canon_? Whatever, you get the gist. Bye!**


	29. Part 2: Chapter 9

**A/N: R.I.P. - My Update Schedule**

 **I tried to get this up yesterday, and I got about 85% of the way done with editing, but (IN THE END, IT DIDN'T EVEN MATTER!) I just decided at about 9:30 that sleep was more important than finishing this. But then I edited the last part, and it's up now! Yay!**

* * *

"Hey, Bigwings, how're you feeling?"

"Reed?" muttered Clay, his head pounding, a vague pain in his back. Clay blinked, and then, suddenly, he remembered the attack, the bolt towards the castle, the acid, and how he had passed out after he had experienced what was, undoubtedly, the worst feeling in his entire life, all coming back in sharp flashes.

After the memories passed, Clay took a moment to glance around the room he was in. It was a moderately-sized room, and wasn't anything spectacular, just something relatively simple. The walls all seemed to be made of stone, with no decoration. The Mudwing turned his head and saw that he was on a leafy lump, which was next to other leafy lumps. And there was light - lots of light pouring in through a large window behind Clay. There didn't appear to be any dragons in the room other than him and Reed, though.

Clay moved again, and felt a sharper pain in his back as he did. Clay realized that was laying _on_ his back, which wasn't the most natural position for a dragon to be in, and which was why there was a jolt whenever he moved. Vaguely, Clay also realized that there was some bandage with mud on it being pressed against his acid wound.

"What happened?" Clay asked, talking slowly and bit gravelly, the cloudiness in his head slowly clearing, but not by a lot.

Reed sighed. "What do you remember?" he asked.

"We were running here, and then that Rainwing - Glory - she came down and shot me with acid," Clay said, slowly and with effort. At the very least, he could remember the Raiwing's name clearly; it stuck out in his mind like a red hot fire through the trees.

"Yeah," Reed said, distantly. "Glory came down and attacked you. And after you were attacked, you fell unconscious, but Deathbringer had you dragged into the Nightwing village and put here, in the Castle Infirmary. Then a couple Rainwings came over and said that the acid had been neutralized successfully, and then this other Nightwing came over and almost slaved over you, making sure your injuries were healed to the best of her abilities. Although… Clay, she said that your scales might not ever heal properly. She said she's never seen Rainwing acid react with Mudwing scales, and especially not with fireproof ones, and that she doesn't know if mud can heal the wound all the way."

"At least he's not dead," came a voice from a distance away, filled with niceness despite the words within; Clay managed to lift himself up and see Beetle walking in through a set of simple wooden doors.

"Deathbringer's coming," the hybrid said towards Reed, then she turned to Clay, and just stared for a second, looking like she was grasping for the right words to say.

"He stayed with you," Beetle finally stated, quietly and slowly, referring to, Clay knew, Reed. "He would absolutely refuse to leave. Not to see his other siblings. Not to talk with any important dragon here. He stayed at your side, and he said he wouldn't ever leave. He even slept in one of the infirmary beds last night."

"I couldn't lose the last member of my family," Reed replied, looking down. "I couldn't let my biggest failure take anything else away."

"It was remarkable," Beetle said, looking at Reed with - what? Newfound respect, perhaps? Was she admiring him for his actions? Or was the look something entirely different?

Clay stared at the two dragons, thinking Reed's loyalty impressive even for a Mudwing. Reed was second-in-command of Clay's troop; if Clay _had_ been killed, then Reed would have had to take over for him. But even when Clay had been wounded to the point of hospitalization, Reed hadn't left to go see his siblings, despite the desire that Clay's brother likely had within, and the fact that Reed's absence really wouldn't have hurt Clay. That being said, Reed's actions were understandable; Clay felt that his brother still blamed himself for letting their siblings get captured. Clay was the only thing Reed hadn't lost, the only member of his family that Reed felt was tangible, even with the rest of his siblings so close, and Reed, simply, didn't want to have a chance of losing Clay without being at his brother's side as it happened.

Clay moved slightly, hurting his back again - that was probably going to become a constant thing, wasn't it? - and said, hoarsely, "Well, thanks, Reed. Truly."

"Beetle hardly left, either," Reed added, which surprised Clay more than anything his brother could have done.

Beetle gave the smallest smile, looking down now. "An Outclaw doesn't leave anyone behind, and they don't leave anyone alone. I couldn't just leave your brother here, moping around, all depressed. He would have done something stupid, like forcing himself to stay up all night. As it was, I had to almost wedge myself in between you two to get him to forget about you long enough to sleep at all."

Clay just stared back at the two dragons in front of him, a sort of joyful thankfulness - the feeling that he couldn't have done anything to deserve such loyalty - welling up in his chest. Then something came to Clay's mind, and the feeling faded a bit as he asked, "So, our siblings?"

"They're here," Beetle replied. "I've seen them. They haven't come in here, mainly because they don't know you're here yet. Deathbringer wants to surprise them, and all he's told them is that he brought an Outclaw congregation into the rainforest with him. Of course, they also haven't come in here because you haven't been told anything about the kingdom, and they have, and Deathbringer wants to tell you everything himself."

"Yeah, the kingdom," Clay said, curiosity about the Nightwings returning despite his injuries and his throbbing head. "Reed, have you been around? How's it like?"

"I only walked through the village when we pulled you into the castle," Reed answered. "But from what I've seen, this place is... weird, I guess. I've told Deathbringer to wait to tell me everything about the Tears and the Eclipse and the kingdom here until you woke up, but, Clay, they're just… _living_ here. I mean, some dragons of one tribe obviously don't like dragons from the other, but they're still living together, like… like _equals_. And then… Clay... they don't… they don't have..."

"Woah, you're going to just jump _there_?" came Deathbringer's voice, the Nightwing having made his way to the infirmary from wherever he was before. Deathbringer walked in, still in armor, looking a little worn out but otherwise unburdened by any injuries. "Without any context? No history lesson? You'll blow his mind."

"It blew my mind when I found out," Reed replied, Clay below, looking back and forth between his brother and the Nightwing, feeling very confused.

"Well, you refused to hear anything from me until Clay woke up," Deathbringer stated. "It's not my fault Fatespeaker leaked the secret to you before I could." Then Deathbringer turned, looking at Clay. "How are you doing? Okay?"

"I'm fine," Clay said, feeling more pain now at not knowing what was going on than from his back, although his back did still hurt. It felt dried out and dead, and yet it still seemed to sting whenever Clay moved it. The mud, actually, hardly seemed be helping. How could that be?

"Think you can handle some pretty heavy stuff?" asked Deathbringer, clearly expecting a "yes," and making himself comfortable in one of the infirmary beds next to Clay.

Clay glanced around at Reed, who looked curious as well, Beetle, who just gave him a shrug, which was hard to interpret, and then back at Deathbringer, who was sitting on a bed, eyes raised. "Yeah," Clay said.

Deathbringer nodded. "Well, I said I'd tell you everything when we got here, and I'm a dragon of my word. Let's start with the volcano.

"We - the whole Nightwing tribe - used to live on a volcanic island," Deathbringer started, Clay attempting to lean towards the Nightwing in order to catch his words better. "It was a bad place to live. Not enough food. Not enough other resources. Acrid and unwavering smoke everywhere, blocking out the sun and the moon. And then there was the whole imminent eruption thing going on, because the volcano wasn't even extinct. No, it was very much active.

"There was a dragon named Morrowseer," Deathbringer continued. "He and our queen at the time, Battlewinner, came up with a plan to take over the rainforest and use that as our new home. We spent years preparing for the attack - too many years. When the attack was finally launched, it was launched too late. The volcano erupted in the middle of the offensive, killing Battlewinner, her daughter, and all of Battlewinner's council members, unless you counted me, her head assassin, as one.

"Now, back in the rainforest, we had already killed the Rainwings' queens - yes, they had more than one, although that may have changed if we hadn't intervened - and we had already surrounded the Rainwings' village, more or less. Even with our weakened force, the Rainwings couldn't resist too much - they just weren't ready to defend against anything. We reorganized, and took over the rainforest, just like our original plan, with one, major problem: we had no leadership.

"A dragon named Fierceteeth and I were the military leaders left of that operation. And after we brought our tribe through the attack, Nightwings started agreeing that since every dragon even remotely related to Battlewinner was dead, that one of us should rule, but they also started arguing about who would make the better permanent ruler. I was generally considered the smarter, stronger, more experienced, _and_ the more personable dragon" - Deathbringer smiled at this, to annoyance that emanated from Beetle - "but I lost the ruling position to Fierceteeth because of the simple fact that I was male, and the Nightwings weren't ready for a male to lead them. That," Deathbringer said, suddenly clenching his teeth, "leads into the ruling of one of the worst Nightwing leaders of all time.

"Fierceteeth should have been a good queen. She had been trained almost since birth as part of Morrowseer's elite invasion force, so she was a strong dragon. What she lacked in size and years, she made up with cunning smarts and, well, fierceness. The issue, though, was with her Rainwing policies. They were too cruel towards the native dragons. You see, Fierceteeth wanted complete, absolute submission from the dragons here. If Rainwings didn't follow orders, they were punished severely, with anything from beatings to whippings to executions - and a good many of those prescribed deaths cruel and public, to make an example."

Deathbringer looked Clay in the eye, and Clay felted unnerved and uncomfortable, likely the intent. Clay didn't need Deathbringer to tell him about the executions; he had heard about them from Rainwing refugees. From what Clay had heard, the killings ranged from decapitation, to forcibly injected poison, to some sort of neck snap or choking method involving chain and tying the dragon's wings together and a long drop from a tree, to the use of Rainwing venom, against the Rainwings' own children, parents, mates, and friends...

"Some Rainwings ran, and some Rainwings tried to resist," Deathbringer eventually continued, moving his eyes away. "They did everything from secretly sabotaging food and supplies to outright attacking Nightwings. In response, Fierceteeth enacted a whole lot more terrible orders against the Rainwings - less food, less sun, less sleep, and more and more hard, often dangerous work. This is about when the Tears of the Rain started.

"It was an underground movement, in the beginning," Deathbringer stated. "It had to be. The members were told to bide their time, and wait for the right moment for action. They were led by the dragon who had the most potential to change the Rainwings into an efficient and deadly tribe, the dragon responsible for that whole 'although that may have changed if we hadn't intervened' I said earlier. Before we came, she was motivated, unlike a lot of dragons in the rainforest, and saw the flaws in her kingdom when a lot of dragons refused to. She was a dragon who was smart enough to see things start to go wrong while we were preparing for our offensive. And, to top it off, she had some royal blood in her from the old Rainwing royal family, making her an actual princess. Without us, she could have re-worked the Rainwing Kingdom back into a working monarchy, and with us, she was a good choice for a new ruler of the rainforest if the Rainwings could manage an overthrow of Fierceteeth."

Deathbringer paused, and then turned his eyes to Clay again. "She was also the dragon that almost killed you yesterday. Glory. Like I said, you two have had terrible luck here - I never would have expected to run into a group of the Tears of the Rain that had Glory leading it. She mostly just spends her time in that stronghold of theirs, fighting only behind the scenes.

"Anyway, Fierceteeth started to crack down the whip even harder. Punishments became harsher and harsher, and were done more and more, until Rainwings were whipped within an inch of their life because they breathed when Fierceteeth didn't want them to. And then Fierceteeth started threatening Nightwings who went against her, be it by just demanding Rainwings some rights or by doing more radical things, like, _horrors untold_ , helping injured Rainwings after they had been punished. I believe that Fierceteeth felt the rainforest falling out of her claws, and she tried to grab it back with more and more force, but it simply kept falling away.

"I want you to understand that Fierceteeth's biggest flaw, other than her cruelty, was her failure to see how smart and deadly the Rainwings actually were. Fierceteeth never thought that any Rainwing could come close to amounting to even the most worthless Nightwing; she thought, with unbending passion, that they were inferior. Nothing changed her mind, not even when the news came that a Rainwing had killed Burn, and we had lost our only ally that would help us in case of a Rainwing rebellion. You see, lots of Nightwings thought like this, and lots of Nightwings didn't think it possible for the native dragons here to organize a full rebellion. They always believed that they were the superior, invincible tribe. They were wrong.

"Remember when I said that the Tears of the Rain had done some good for this place?" Deathbringer asked. "Well, they didn't do it peacefully. Glory and her Tears snuck their way into this castle, and assassinated our queen. And her mate. And her entire council - discounting a few dragons who had apparently seen the attack coming and fled ahead of time - leaving us without leadership, all over again.

"I'm only alive because Glory was stupid enough to send only four dragons after me," Deathbringer continued, pausing to give Beetle a "I mean, I _was_ one of Pyrrhia's best assassins, after all" look. "I was the military leader then, too, so Glory wanted me dead; she simply underestimated me. Although, that fight was one of the most painful in my life. I kept thinking that the Rainwings I was killing while defending myself were the ones that really deserved to live, not me. I was another Nightwing, one that had taken the lives of Rainwings away from them, too; why wouldn't they want me dead?

"But I fought my assassins off. Then I ran from the castle, figuring that I'd grab as many Nightwings that Glory wanted dead - you know, old government workers and dragons like that - as I could and leave the rainforest, going maybe to the Talons of Peace or maybe to Moorhen or at least to _somewhere_. The strange thing is that I wanted, at first, to let Glory keep her newly-won position and rule the rainforest, because I figured that maybe a Rainwing with that much coordination and smarts could do what Fierceteeth hadn't. I figured that maybe Glory could be a good queen."

Deathbringer's face suddenly contorted in anger. "But I was wrong. She lost it. _She absolutely lost it._ "

"Glory's brother, another Tear at the time, had the brilliant idea of, just maybe, trying to create a kingdom where both Nightwings and Rainwings could live. But Glory couldn't accept that. You have to understand something, Mudwings. This dragon was a dragon who had had everything: a beautiful habitat, plentiful food, no worries, and an easy rise to the throne when she wanted it. Then the Nightwings came and destroyed it all. She was furious when she woke up with Nightwings around her, she grew more furious as her friends were taken and beaten and killed around her, and she only grows more furious with each passing day. In some other world, she could have made a good queen, I'm sure of it. But when Glory took over the rainforest, she was too twisted by hatred and let herself be blinded by anger. She wanted, and still wants, one and only one thing: complete, unquestionable revenge.

"Glory quickly started a genocide of Nightwings after she came into power, calling it the liberation of the rainforest. Any Nightwing prisoner in the castle was immediately executed. That included the dragonets we had in the Castle Hatchery, the physical structure of which was destroyed by Glory afterwards, for good measure. She was intent on wiping out our entire tribe. This is when that split I was telling you about happened. Glory's brother, a dragon named Jambu, broke away from Glory and started resisting ruling from his sister. And so did a lot of other Tears. They hid Nightwings when Glory was coming for them, and they started forming up a makeshift resistance force.

"As a side note," Deathbringer transitioned, "this is when the Eclipse started. A Nightwing snuck into and annihilated - and I mean annihilated; I believe explosives were involved - the Rainwing hatchery, and all the dragons inside, as revenge for what Glory had done. That dragon never joined the Eclipse, interestingly, instead choosing to run for his life away from the Tears of the Rain, but that event rallied enough discontent Nightwings together to form a group made to fight the Tears of the Rain. I have to say, at least the Eclipse helped Jambu's Tears of the Rain distract Glory's Tears of the Rain long enough for me to get involved in our unofficial war again.

"Yes, I came back," Deathbringer said. "I couldn't just leave when I heard what was going on. I rallied another makeshift group, this one a combined force of Rainwings and Nightwings who just wanted to stop fighting and go back to living. We managed to ally with Jambu's group, and, since Glory was so disorganized from the Eclipse and the Tears of the Rain split, we managed to force Glory out, and retake the castle, cutting Glory's reign to only three days. I could've killed her, then," Deathbringer continued, his voice suddenly turning hateful, "I could have ran after her and killed her while she was fleeing with her escort; she was literally within my view. But something stopped me, and that is the decision I regret more than anything else.

"We took over the castle, and retook the wall, and soon, we had the old Nightwing Royal Village - the space in between the wall and the castle - under our control. But lots of dragons had died, and Glory and her followers were still staking out positions just outside of the wall - they never gave up, really. We couldn't decisively take anything more of the rainforest, but we soon realized, with a bit of overall despair, that we didn't need to. We had lost too many. The Nightwing tribe was down to about a third of what it had been a year before, after both the eruption and Glory's Rebellion, and the Rainwings were down to about half, after Fierceteeth and the Eclipse and everything else. The old Nightwing Royal Village was now our new, combined, Nightwing and Rainwing village. Now, Clay, if you can, turn around."

Clay forced himself to roll onto his legs and turn, a bit perplexed at Deathbringer's orders, not helped by the fact that he was still comprehending Deathbringer's story. Clay looked through a large window on the side of the wall behind him, the one where all the light was pouring in from, and could see the village below him - stone huts, with Rainwings and Nightwings moving around outside, just going about their lives, as Reed had said. The village stretched to the wall, which wasn't very far away, with what could have been some small farms squished into the space allotted. Clay noticed a couple things that matched up with Deathbringer's tale: Nightwings were outnumbered, easily, by the Rainwings; it looked almost like there were two Rainwings for each Nightwing. And the village, Clay realized, was _nothing_ when compared to the Sea or Sand or Sky or Mud or even the Ice Kingdom. It was _puny_.

"Do you see why we can't have a war?" Deathbringer asked, looking out the window, lots of emotions revealing themselves in the dragon's stance. "Do you see why I didn't tell you anything about here before you saw it and couldn't possibly run to someone like Scarlet? Our kingdom - the great, powerful Nightwing kingdom - is pitiful. We'd get obliterated by just a fraction of Scarlet's or Blister's or even Glacier's forces, even with Rainwing acid and Nightwing weaponry on our side. That's why we're avoiding war, no matter what we have to give to anyone. That's why we cut off communications once we had Glory's rebellion under control - we didn't want anyone to know how weak we were. We've got enough trouble even keeping up with the Tears of the Rain. An _actual_ war would wipe our tribes off the face of Pyrrhia."

There was a small silence, Deathbringer staring out the window, before Reed finally spoke up. "But, despite everything, you weren't made the king."

Deathbringer smiled, bittersweetly, again, a small chuckle coming from the dragon. Clay found himself a bit confused at Reed's outburst, but as the Mudwing thought, the more Deathbringer being the king really did make sense. He had led the Nightwings and the Rainwings into an uneasy state of peace and unification. The old Nightwing royal family had been destroyed, meaning that the Nightwings would have had to make a new one, and Deathbringer was the obvious choice. And there was Glory's outburst the previous day; perhaps the Nightwing's Commander status was just another part of the title. It was hard to see Nightwings doing something like forgoing a queen, but if two dragons for every three were really dead, then maybe they'd be just desperate enough to not care. But, apparently, they hadn't done that, and had instead done something different-

"He's basically the king, Reed," Beetle then replied, confusing Clay even more.

"I'm the Commander of the Nightwing Armies," Deathbringer stated, a second after Beetle finished. "And I'm also the Head Council Member of the Nightwing Kingdom - like that means anything when I can't get others to just let random Mudwings go. But that's all I am; no more, no less."

"Oh, Three Moons, Deathbringer," Beetle sighed. "You have complete control over the military, which includes, what? Like, ninety four percent of the dragons here? You're also the Head Council Member, and even if the way you set up your government means that you don't have complete control over _everything_ , you are pretty much the most influential dragon in your entire political body. And you're _also_ the only dragon that consistently leaves the rainforest, meaning that you pretty much handle the entirety of this kingdom's foreign affairs. Admit it, you're basically the king."

"But wouldn't the queen still have more power than him, no matter what?" Clay asked, wondering what the big deal was if Deathbringer _was_ the king. But as the question left him and Clay saw the way the dragons around him received it, the more Clay felt more and more assured of his previous thought, that maybe... and yet it was just so... _impossible_...

Beetle and Reed glanced at Deathbringer, who didn't react for a second. "Clay," Deathbringer finally said, "when the Rainwings and the Nightwings tossed Glory out, we'd destroyed the old Rainwing system of government, lost two Nightwing queens, and incriminated another Rainwing queen, in the span of less than a year. At the point we were at, Nightwings were practically pushing me, practically one of the last leaders alive in the rainforest, to lead them, their sense of royal dignity usurped by the need to have a military leader that could fight the Tears of the Rain. For a while, these two tribes were simply a big military force, with me at the head. But there had to be a government beyond a military, and there had to be a way to guarantee that Rainwings and Nightwings would have a way to work together so even more disasters didn't happen, and there had to be a logical line of succession other than a royal family in case I was killed - I don't have anything resembling a family left, anymore - so I got together with Jambu, some of the other defectors from Glory's Tears of the Rain, and a couple of other smart Nightwings, and we decided, at least until the Tears of the Rain were brought back under control, to not even re-establish the monarchy, and instead replace it with something else entirely."

"So, you don't-" Clay breathed, his mind starting to explode as he realized what Deathbringer was saying, the Mudwing's previous thoughts not even affecting him anymore.

"No, Clay," Deathbringer replied. "We don't have a queen anymore." The Nightwing suddenly started laughing. "Who would it even be, if we _did_ have one? There's no one _left_ to be queen. The majority of both royal families are dead. And what good would a queen even do us? Clay, we're at war, and I'm the most experienced one left here in regards to warfare; the Nightwings want me to lead them through war, even if I'm male. Quite simply, we've just got desperate enough to try something else."

Clay stared, and even though he had seen it coming, and Deathbringer had defended the reasons, he was still in complete shock, the only mind-blowing experience even close to comparable to this one was the morning Peril had talked about Obsidian. How could a tribe _not have a queen!?_

"Like I said," Beetle jumped in, "the Nightwings are basically one big military. Deathbringer is the Commander of the Nightwing Armies, which means he rules pretty much everything. The only things he doesn't control is a very small amount of elite Rainwing forces, and what the other council members are in charge of - oh, Three Moons, we have to explain the council system to you, and that's _really_ complicated..."

"Let Starflight do it," Deathbringer said, moving out of the bed he had placed himself on at last, unaware of Clay's internal plight. "He can do it better than us both, considering he designed a majority of the thing. Plus, we have to talk to him, anyways. Hey, Clay, can you walk?"

Clay wanted to answer, and yet he wanted to ask all sorts of questions - How in Pyrrhia do you succeed each other without a royal family? If any dragon can rule and not just a royal family can rule, how do you avoid anarchy? What _would_ happen if you died? - when the door to the infirmary slammed open. Two female Nightwings came in, one a few years older than the other, although both were nowhere near old. The older one was carrying bandages and a bucket of mud - likely the medic that had been taking care of Clay - and the smaller one just looked at Deathbringer, incredulously, as if the Nightwing Commander had done something wrong.

Deathbringer sighed at the sight of the two, as if mildly irritated, and muttered, "Okay, well, _actually_ , you might have to go through questioning first."


	30. Part 2: Chapter 10

"Questioning" definitely sounded ominous, but Clay didn't have too much time to think about that before the dragon who was obviously Clay's assigned medic asserted, "Actually, he's going to get his bandages replaced, first."

The medic dragon had then quickly run through the somewhat awkward stare that Deathbringer and the younger dragon had developed and held almost immediately, making her way towards Clay. When she got to Clay, she spoke in a worried and apologetic tone, introducing herself as Fatespeaker and saying something about how terrible it was that visitors should of had to experience something like Clay had, and yet she moved confidently and unwaveringly as she worked. She gently yet forcefully made Clay lie down, then pulled off Clay's bandage and started scraping off the old mud.

Beetle and Reed were still hovering over Clay as Fatespeaker started cleaning him. Reed grimaced as Clay's wound came into view, and Clay, obviously not being able to see his back, asked, "How bad is it, Reed?"

"I'm not going to lie," Reed said, still grimacing, turning his head to look at the wound from another angle. "It's bad. It looks like your scales literally melted off and revealed some new, red, raw thing underneath. I mean, they told me it could have been worse, if the acid _hadn't_ been neutralized when it was, but it still looks _really bad_."

"I guess it's good I can't see it, then," Clay muttered, shifting a bit on his bed. Fatespeaker had finished removing the old mud, the small dragon at the door had just now broken out of her stare and was walking towards Deathbringer, and now the older female Nightwing was over at a pail of mud she had brought in and then put aside. She didn't seem to be very out of the ordinary, based on the few Nightwings Clay had seen, and she looked to be about Clay's age. The only thing different about her was that she wasn't armored and she was wearing one interesting piece of treasure: a small, golden necklace, one that gloriously caught the light as she turned back towards Clay and one that revealed a shining, black stone inside of the amulet, which Clay almost didn't recognize until he remembered the same thing being on Deathbringer's bracelet before.

Fatespeaker was now massaging new mud onto Clay, and Clay was feeling a bit of the irritation on his back fading away into the mud; maybe the mud did help, just not as much as it should have. Clay shifted his wings and let Fatespeaker rub the scales they had been covering before, feeling that maybe the rest of his life _wouldn't_ be trying to avoid jolting pain on his back. Maybe the rest of his life wouldn't be chasing after his siblings or fighting in useless wars. Maybe the rest of his life could be peaceful and normal and joyful.

Clay was able to hear the other, smaller Nightwing begin to talk with Deathbringer, as well, muttering, although not very quietly, "You should have told me to come here right after he woke up."

"I didn't need to," Deathbringer stated. "I know this dragon isn't a spy or an assassin. I don't need your questioning in order to know if I can trust him." Yet, at the same time he said this, Deathbringer waved his claw, and motioned for Reed and Beetle to move away.

The young dragon didn't respond to what Deathbringer said; she just looked at and then walked over towards Clay, looking at him with a bit of anxiousness, despite what had seemed a determination to put the Mudwing through this "questioning" in her earlier words. As Clay's back was being treated and his mind began to clear, he couldn't help but notice certain things: this dragon was less black and more silver, different than all the Nightwings' other black or purple shades Clay had seen from before in scrolls or in his experience. She walked into the light, and some markings under her eyes glistened in it, and Clay realized he hadn't seen those marks on any other Nightwing so far. She was also definitely younger than Clay, although by how much, Clay couldn't tell. And she was wearing a necklace similar to Fatespeaker's, although hers was designed in the shape of a bronze dragon curling around the black stone that seemed to be present in all these Nightwings' jewelry. But why was this dragonet coming to interrogate him? Weren't there better dragons for the task?

Fatespeaker stopped rubbing in mud and tore a bandage from the roll she had brought in with her, pasting it onto Clay, using some adhesive at the edges to keep it on the Mudwing. She then smiled at the younger dragon across from Clay with a sense of supportiveness before she moved away, over to where Reed and Beetle had gone. Clay and this small dragon sort of stared at each, Clay seeing a couple bouts of what looked like fear or aversion crossing the dragon now, as if she had just realized what she was getting herself into. Then, slowly, the dragon started to breath deeply, and reached towards her necklace.

She unsnapped it, took it off, and then slowly gave it to Deathbringer, clasping her eyes shut as she dropped it into the commander's talons. Deathbringer moved only about half a yard away, watching the smaller dragon the entire time. Clay heard her breathing becoming shaky, as if she was being overwhelmed by something. Deathbringer held the necklace, looking at the smaller dragon with a bit of both worry and concern, as the smaller dragon's breathing slowly became stable again. Eyes still closed, she almost whispered, "Clay."

"Yes?" asked Clay, wondering what in the name of Pyrrhia was going on; this was _strange_. Clay also couldn't help notice that Deathbringer was almost in a defensive stance now, as if he was expecting something out of the ordinary to happen. No other dragon seemed to worry, except maybe Beetle, but she didn't seem too changed from her normal self. But all that happened was that the young dragon in front of Clay just stood there, her eyes still closed, her breathing still slowly getting more steady and... powerful? The young Nightwing opened her eyes and looked at Clay, some new aliveness that hadn't been present before in them, and although the two didn't speak, there was an air between them that made Clay slowly grow uncomfortable.

"Moon," Deathbringer said, confusing Clay until he realized that the word was a name, not, like, the moon. "Interrogations." The word was filled with a sort of an urging nature, as if Deathbringer wanted these interrogations done as soon as possible, for some other reason than because they took up his time.

"He doesn't trust me," Moon stated, the quiet dragon scaring Clay with her sudden outburst. "I had an accident _once_ , and he hasn't trusted me since."

Deathbringer just shifted, although the shift was relatively emotionless, as if Deathbringer had just changed a subject. "It was a _bad_ accident, Moon," was all the Nightwing commander said, who, Clay couldn't help but notice, was still keeping his eyes on Moon at all times, making the Mudwing think that maybe-

"You're a fighter," Moon said, again making Clay jump from her sudden speech. Clay blinked, his thoughts cut off, before Moon said more. "You keep analyzing threats and reading emotions and figuring out the relationships of dragons around you. You're worried that something might go wrong, and you want the information that you need to lead the dragons you care about if it does, and while your mind doesn't work as fast as some other dragons that I've seen, it still works pretty fast. I've seen your mentality type before; it means you're a fighter."

His mind? Oh… she had been reading his mind. But that confused Clay. Why had _this_ dragon, who was small and not strong-looking and obviously not very old, come to read his mind? Three Moons, hadn't Deathbringer been reading his mind for the past two days, even if he didn't let on to it?

Moon smiled, obviously reading Clay's mind, and obviously having the answer. Clay wasn't comfortable with this. He liked to keep his thoughts private; wasn't that the _point_ of having thoughts, anyway? At least when Deathbringer read his mind, he was discrete about it; having Moon bode over him and react whenever Clay thought about _anything_ , making Clay realize that everything in his mind was her's, was uncomfortable. What could Moon even read? Everything? Were any of his secrets safe? Like… well… Clay didn't have many secrets, honestly. The fact that he had never mated, despite being old enough to - was that embarrassing enough? Or did it have to be shameful, like the couple of the times Clay had become enraged during the war, and killed without mercy? Did his very confusing relationship with Peril count?

 _Well, if you keep blabbing your possible secrets into the front room of your mind, she'll definitely read them. Way to go, Clay._

Clay tried his best to clear his mind, and stare back at Moon, who hadn't said anything for a while, probably just reading his mind and figuring out everything about him. Deathbringer was looking apprehensive again, and Moon decided to notice this when Clay did; she stepped up even closer towards Clay.

"Are you really here simply on a quest to find your siblings, or do you have some ulterior motive?"

The question came quickly, giving Clay a bit of a shock. An ulterior motive? Like what? What ulterior motive would have made Clay fly straight into Scarlet's claws, then away into the Outclaws, and then through the rainforest and past the Tears of the Rain, granting him what was looking more and more like a permanent injury? No ulterior motive would be worth that.

But his siblings' lives were. Clay said, with complete honesty, "All I want is to get my siblings back. If Moorhen tries to interrogate me after I get back, then I'll be surprised, and I swear that I won't give away anything you don't want me to."

Moon nodded, apparently satisfied with whatever she found in Clay's head, while Reed took the moment to mutter to Beetle. "I'm going to have to agree with my Bigwings," Clay heard Reed's murmur from the background. "At this point, I just want to get my siblings, go back home, and take a day-long nap."

Moon paused for a second, then she asked, "Are you planning to stir up trouble here, by trying to turn dragons within the fortress against us, perhaps, or by attempting an assassination, maybe?"

All Clay thought, immediately, was, _What?_ _ **Really?**_ Clay had come to the Nightwing Kingdom to, in part, try and stop a war, or, in other words, _do the exact opposite of stirring up trouble_. He wasn't planning on attempting to start a rebellion or a war, and he had no intentions of trying to murder anyone; he just really wanted his siblings back. "Uh, _no_ ," was all that Clay could respond with.

"And you are fireproof?" Moon asked, the question coming suddenly and the content of which surprising Clay a bit. They knew about his scales. So why the question?

There wasn't a point in trying to hide his secret, even if that was possible and the Nightwings didn't know about it. Already, images of Clay flying in between one of his siblings and blocking a fire blast, of Clay flying out of burning forests, dragging half-dead dragons with him, and of Clay holding Peril's claw in the Skywing Kingdom were flashing through the older dragon's mind. "Yes, I do," Clay responded, a bit downhearted as he was forced to realize that his secret weapon wasn't much of a secret here, with mind-readers at every corner.

Moon looked like she wanted to ask more, but Deathbringer interjected. "Clear?" Deathbringer asked, and Moon nodded, almost reluctantly, before she suddenly whipped towards the Nightwing Commander.

"Look," she almost, from what Clay could hear, pleaded, "I still don't know if these dragons are completely trustworthy. Maybe we can, I mean, _you_ can, please…" Whatever she was trying to do, Deathbringer wasn't really budging for Moon's suggestion. He seemed to be kind of tired, as if he didn't want to argue about whatever Moon was talking about.

"How do you do that?" Moon suddenly asked, jerking away to another topic again, whipping herself towards Clay, scaring the Mudwing a little. She took a forceful step towards Clay, and around this time, every dragon in the room became like Deathbringer: on edge and uptight. "How do just read dragons like that, without knowing anything about them? And why can't _I_ do it?"

"Moon," Deathbringer warned, his voice turning forceful, taking a step towards the young Nightwing.

Moon stopped, blinked once, and then looked back at Deathbringer, what was looking like remorse filling her stance. She took a glance back at Clay, and then, slowly and reluctantly, walked over to Deathbringer and her necklace. She closed her eyes, breathed in, and grabbed the jewelry, although she did it as if the action hurt her. As she held it, Clay thought he saw a sudden desire from Moon to throw the thing away, as if it was poison, but she kept it, and slowly wrapped it around her neck again.

Her breathing had started shaking again, and still she looked like she wanted to rip the thing off of her and fling it away. And yet, she didn't, instead letting her breathing once again return to normal. Clay couldn't help but have one thought: this was incredibly _strange_.

At this point, Fatespeaker walked from Reed and Beetle and over to Moon, nuzzling the smaller Nightwing the slightest bit. Moon seemed different now, seeming to be undeniably shy, backing away from Clay. And Deathbringer seemed to be softening, saying, "I know it's hard, Moon. And we're all trying our hardest to help you, so that you don't have to use your necklace anymore. But we just don't have any information on the old Nightwing tribe, especially after most of our scrolls were destroyed in the eruption."

Moon was going through a bout of sadness, Clay could see, and she seemed to want to run away from the dragons present and hide. Meanwhile, Clay was still finding himself confused, which probably shouldn't have happened, considering that Deathbringer was supposed to have told him everything. But before Clay could ask questions - now about completely different things, although the whole "not having a queen" thing was still there in the recesses of his mind - Deathbringer interrupted again.

"So, like I was saying before all this happened, can you walk?" Deathbringer asked, turning around, towards Clay.

Clay decided to find out by forcing himself up, Reed and Beetle coming over to help. There was pain in his back as Clay lifted himself up, and some as the Mudwing took tentative steps, but the pain wasn't disabling, the mud seemingly helping at least a little bit.

"Okay, _now_ we're going to go talk to Starflight," Deathbringer said after Clay had paced his way around the room a couple times without Reed or Beetle's aid. "With, hopefully, no more interruptions."


	31. Part 2: Chapter 11

From Clay's admittedly limited experience and knowledge, castles could generally be grouped into one of two categories. Either they were flashy, spectacular buildings that showed off a queen's wealth and power, like what Clay had seen at Scarlet's palace, or what the Mudwing had heard about Coral's or Glacier's or even Moorhen's. They were either that, or they were less castles and more fortresses, like what had been Burn's and now was Blister's castle.

The Nightwing castle was most definitely part of the second category. As Clay slowly made his way with Beetle and Reed out of the castle infirmary, away from Moon and Fatespeaker, he noticed that the infirmary doors were not, in fact, simple wooden ones. They were actually reinforced with steel; the metal was just painted brown to make it blend in with the rest of the door. As Deathbringer led the two Mudwings and Beetle out of the infirmary and down through the castle hallways and towards this mysterious "Starflight," the group passed a lot more reinforced doors like this, some in the middle of hallways, almost built like they were checkpoints. Clay couldn't help but notice that most of the windows in the castle appeared to be reinforced, as well, and Deathbringer even told him that a special kind of stronger glass was used for them.

There were also guards. Rainwing guards, Nightwing guards, guards in armor, guards with crossbows... all sorts of guards. Even the sleepiest Rainwing guards Clay saw weren't actually that sleepy, and instead seemed to be trained, alert, and responsive, making Clay understand why the Tears of the Rain had never attempted to retake the castle after Glory was ousted - the whole kingdom _was_ a huge military, as far as Clay could see.

And yet the castle had a sort of simplistic beauty in it. The doors were etched in creative patterns, and what looked like symbols or carvings sometimes would adorn the walls to the Mudwings and Beetle's sides. Eventually, the four dragons made it to another door, Clay's back pain slowly turning into a constant but tolerable ache as he walked, and although this door didn't look any different from any other door Clay had seen already, Deathbringer pushed open them and went in, motioning for Clay and his group to follow.

The room was darker than the infirmary, although Clay noticed that the light was fading mainly because the sun was starting to go down - Three Moons, he had been knocked out for a long time. There was a dragon younger than Deathbringer in here, about Clay's age, it looked like, staring down at a table underneath him, fiddling with something. He must have heard the door open, because he shifted a little as the four dragons walked in, but he didn't turn around, instead choosing to remain focused on whatever he was already looking at.

"Starflight," said Deathbringer, perhaps trying to get the dragon's attention.

"Deathbringer," replied Starflight, still looking at the table. "I think I've figured out your enigma, although the solution raises more questions than answers, I think."

Deathbringer motioned for the dragons following him to stop, and then walked towards Starflight; apparently, whatever Starflight had been doing had been important. "So, this mixture is pretty standard stuff," Starflight explained, looking towards Deathbringer as the Nightwing pulled up to his side, although not catching the other dragons in his peripheral vision. "Lots of tribes use this solution in their explosives, including us. I figure someone could have leaked the info to Glory about what it's made of, and she could have found most of the materials, or suitable substitutes, at least, in the rainforest. But the mixture inside isn't the worrying thing. The worrying thing is this."

Starflight held up some tan thing that had likely been a sphere before, it looked like, the Nightwing had cracked it open. There was a sudden jolt as Clay recognized it as the outer casing of the Tears of the Rain's explosives that had been thrown down at him the day before. "This, I believe, is a form of sandstone. Basically, the mixture is put in here, and it burns, which eventually puts enough pressure on the explosive's casing that, well, it explodes. The thing is, I don't understand why this is being used. I recognize this sandstone; it has to be made from materials only plentiful in the desert. The forging process also isn't easy, especially for an explosive design as complicated as this - yes, Deathbringer, these things are very complicated. I don't think Glory made this; I think Glory got this from somewhere else. But you're positive that Glory has no connections with the Outclaws" - at this, Beetle muttered, "She _doesn't_ ," but Starflight didn't catch it - "and I don't know where she could have gotten it from, otherwise."

Deathbringer paused, and Clay felt for a moment that the Nightwing commander had forgotten about him. Finally, with a bit of slightly uncharacteristic worry crossing his face, Deathbringer muttered, "I hate to say this, but she has to be making her way into the desert when we're not looking. Three Moons, if she found _that_..." Deathbringer trailed off here, likely regaining his thoughts, before saying, "It's likely that she might be sneaking into the desert and buying - or stealing - explosives, and I can only pray that Glory hasn't found allies anywhere there. But, yes, I seriously doubt Glory has the capability to synthesize these things. We'll have to figure out where these explosives are coming from, and, if the situation calls for it, we might have to cut off our desert tunnel. It shouldn't be too much of a problem; it's not like we use it anymore."

"Of course, sir," Starflight replied, placing the tan half-sphere back on the table, signaling the end of the conversation. Once again, Clay was finding himself confused; what did Deathbringer mean when he had referred to a tunnel to the desert? Surely the Nightwings didn't have a literal tunnel to the desert. "So," Starflight said, changing the subject and the topic of Clay's thoughts, "um, you said something earlier about dragons coming to speak with me?"

Deathbringer gestured towards Clay, Reed, and Beetle, and Starflight turned his head, revealing the face of another normal Nightwing. A silver necklace, similar in design to the one Fatespeaker had, was hanging on his neck, another shiny black stone fixed in it. Other than that, there was nothing to focus on with Starflight other than normal Nightwing stuff - starry wings, eyes filled with intelligence, and the posture of a dragon that was probably, once again, rummaging through Clay's mind and learning every possible thing about him.

Or maybe not, because it took a minute for Starflight to realize who Clay was and exclaim, ecstatically, "You! You're the fireproof Mudwing!" Clay was taken aback at how _excited_ Starflight had become; he almost looked like he wanted to run up to Clay and hug him. Deathbringer must have noticed, too, because he was chuckling.

"Yes," Deathbringer said, a small smile on his face, amused at Starflight's antics. "Starflight, you've met Beetle before. The smaller Mudwing here is Reed, and the bigger Mudwing here is Clay - the one you want. Mudwings, this is our head scientist and another council member of the Nightwing Kingdom, Starflight. He specializes in weaponry, but he can think better than almost any other Nightwing here, so he does a lot of other brain work, too."

It took a moment for Clay to realize it, but it suddenly came into his mind that this, smaller-and-younger-than-Deathbringer and very excitable dragon, was the reason Clay had been forced to come into the rainforest and the reason part of Clay's back was half-melted and aching. Clay felt a bit of distrust with that realization, and a few other things crossed his mind, too: did Clay really want to put his faith in this dragon, who apparently spent most of his time designing things to kill others and who purposely had led the Mudwings into an environment he must have known was dangerous?

Deathbringer must have seen this new distrust in Clay, because he added, "Starflight here can also be a bit of a dolt," nudging the Nightwing next to him, with half-playfulness and half-seriousness. "Who sometimes forgets about the overall picture in his quest for knowledge."

This remark made Starflight's excitement level shrink a little. The Nightwing almost slumped down, muttering, "Well, the council voted for it; it wasn't just me…"

Clay wasn't bewildered by Starflight's sentence - at this point, Clay wasn't sure he could be any more bewildered. At this point, he was just persistently curious about everything around him. Beetle must have seen this, somehow, because she stated, "You really need to explain the council to these two. They're still getting over the fact that you don't have a queen - we haven't even _made_ it to the council yet. And I think that whatever you want to do with them needs to be explained, too. _And_ they need their siblings back."

Starflight was seemingly overwhelmed with Beetle's quick words, almost slumping over, with what looked to be a bit of shame in his posture. Deathbringer noticed, and encouraged Starflight, "Look, how about we go to dinner and explain everything, okay?"

"Promise that you won't unveil a terrifying new weapon or threaten to kill us," Reed stated in response to Deathbringer's sentence, almost automatically, to various looks from all the other dragons in the room - an understanding glance from Clay, two confused glances from the Nightwings, and the smallest hint of a grin from Beetle. "Because the last time I went to dinner with someone in a castle," Reed continued, almost with too much drama, "that's what happened."

* * *

Despite being in an actual kingdom, Clay's dinner in the Nightwing Kingdom was closer to the meals he had eaten in the Outclaw base than anything in the Skywing Palace. There was no set time for meals; important dragons apparently just came down whenever. There was no huge feast like with Scarlet - likely, the dragons here didn't have the resources for them. Deathbringer told the Mudwings that there were a few farms fit into the village, and that there were occasionally militarized hunting parties sent off to find food, but that there still wasn't enough food produced for any dragon, no matter how important, to get too much more than another.

The dining hall was a simple room, mostly stone with grooves on the walls running vertically from the floor to the ceiling, giving the room the appearance of being a big, stone tree. More reinforced windows - Three Moons, how much steel had the Nightwings used in making this castle? - also let the light remaining from the now darkening rainforest flow in. Clay saw a couple of candles that could provide light in the event of darkness before the dragons had finished, although Deathbringer had told them that these were scarce, too.

"Everything's scarce," the Nightwing commander had finally admitted. "Sometimes I think Glory's simply trying to starve us to death."

Starflight had come in with the four other dragons. Clay got a few glimpses of Starflight looking at him during the walk down, although the guilt Starflight had appeared to have obtained was still there, only seeming to multiply when the Nightwing got a full view of Clay's back. Clay wasn't sure what to think about Starflight; he seemed almost timid sometimes, and yet he had managed to manipulate Clay into coming into the rainforest, so he certainly wasn't stupid or powerless. Clay grimaced inside as he realized that Starflight had probably just heard that thought from him, although, like Deathbringer, Starflight didn't seem to let on that he could read minds, either. Maybe it was just a skill Nightwings were taught later in life, although there seemed to be holes in that theory, the fact that Starflight hadn't read who Clay was immediately being the biggest offender in Clay's mind. Maybe, Clay thought, making a new theory, some Nightwings had stronger mind-reading powers than others, and Moon was an exceptionally powerful mind-reader, which was why the Nightwings had sent in the smaller dragon to interrogate him.

When Clay finally made his way to the dining hall, his back hardly even impeding him at the moment despite the pain slowly starting to come back, the only dragons there were Fatespeaker and Moon, the former of which waved Starflight and the rest over with a smile, and a Rainwing that seemed oddly familiar. Clay didn't realize who it was until the Rainwing came over to Clay and apologized for not making his way over to the Mudwing faster, confusing Clay until the Mudwing realized that he was talking about Glory. "I'm Jambu," the Rainwing, whose scales were currently a blue-purple, said. "Commander of the Rainwing Armies, second-in-command of the entire military to Deathbringer. I'm also Glory's brother, ironically enough, which, luckily for you, means my venom can neutralize hers, since I'm part of her family."

Jambu looked alert, without any major inkling of laziness in his posture; Clay could definitely see the fighter Deathbringer had implied during his earlier story. The Rainwing didn't seem very out of the ordinary other than that, despite a few scars, which looked strange on dragons from what had been a peaceful tribe such a short time before. Clay, however, did see a bracelet on Jambu very similar to Deathbringer's, the only difference being that the Nightwing emblem was now the old Rainwing one. Otherwise, the bracelets were almost identical, even having the same, sparkling black stone. Clay was starting to wonder about these stones; they seemed to be on every important dragon he had come across, as if it was a requirement for their jewelry, although Clay couldn't guess why that would be the case. Jambu didn't talk much, and left after he had a short, whispered conversation with Deathbringer, and then the dining hall was filled with only the four Nightwings, two Mudwings, and Beetle.

"So Jambu was another active one before you came here, huh?" asked Reed once the Rainwing had left.

Deathbringer let a laugh escape. "Jambu? Oh, _Three Moons_ , no. But you'd be surprised what the lack of sun and rest, initiated by an overload of work, can do to a Rainwing. Jambu changed from a standard, lazy Rainwing to a surprisingly smart and surprisingly strong dragon once Fierceteeth started removing all his luxuries. But the thing most remarkable about Jambu is the fact that he never turned too grumpy - or evil - when he didn't have sun. He would be cranky, but he still remained Glory's voice of reason in the Tears of the Rain before she flat-out went insane and started completely ignoring him. He has enough sun nowadays to avoid being grumpy, but that motivation Fierceteeth gave him hasn't left." At this, Deathbringer finished the subject and motioned for the dragons around him to move towards the dining table.

The main table was quite large, and it looked like it could fit twenty dragons, easily. Starflight sat down next to Fatespeaker and Moon on one side of the table. Clay couldn't help but notice that Moon seemed a bit more comfortable than she had been when Clay had left, although she didn't make any move to talk, instead just fumbling with her necklace. Deathbringer sat at the head of the table next, and then Clay, Reed, and Beetle sat across from Starflight, Moon, and Fatespeaker, respectively.

"So, you want to know about the council system?" Starflight asked once all the dragons were settled, although to Clay it sounded like the Nightwing was really trying to avoid any conversation he wasn't comfortable with. "It really isn't too complicated, actually. We have eight council members. Two of them are our military leaders: the Commander of the Nightwing Armies and the Commander of the Rainwing Armies - Deathbringer and Jambu. The other six are in control of various different parts of our kingdom: Nightwing-Rainwing relations, infrastructure, agricultural production, research and development, one Nightwing for education, and one Rainwing for education. Now, most queens have something like this, but in most kingdoms, these dragons are simply advisers and have very little power. Here, they are the main government body. A council member controls everything in his or her field, and when something comes up that affects all of us, we get together and vote on it. Simple."

Clay just stared at Starflight, who had said everything as if the process was obvious. But to Clay, this process was not obvious, and he had _several_ questions. "So anyone can become a council member and rule?" asked Clay, incredulously. "No royal family?"

Starflight nodded, like he had expected the question, and said, "Clay, here we depend on dragons being smart enough to know who is the best for a certain position and then supporting that certain dragon. You see, we don't do the fighting to the death thing here anymore-"

"What!?" Clay interrupted. "But then how do you avoid getting challenges every day!? How do you avoid completely anarchy!?"

"There's a whole legal process that a dragon has to go through in order to succeed a council member," Starflight said, shrugging off Clay's question. "It's pretty much a modified version of the Rainwing's old system of succession, where a dragon takes the position based on a variety of qualities, everything from popularity tests to intelligence tests to fighting strength, all depending on the position in question. For example, someone trying trying to take my place as the council member for research and development would have to take multiple tests designed by an intelligent third party, while someone trying for the position of Nightwing-Rainwing relations is chosen almost entirely based on popularity polls."

"And as for your first question, well, there's a cooldown period after a dragon challenges another for a council position, and any further challenges from that same dragon during that time period are void. You'd be surprised at how little we get challenged, actually. Deathbringer and Jambu are permanent members as long as they keep their military positions, and the rest of us do our jobs well enough for dragons to be satisfied. I think we've had _one_ challenge, for infrastructure, I believe, and nothing uncivilized or violent happened. No dragon died; the Rainwing who had challenged the current position holder won, and the transition afterwards was entirely peaceful."

"Think of it this way," Deathbringer interjected. "Why in Pyrrhia would we kill dragons smart enough or strong enough to rule part of this kingdom when we're almost wiped out? We can't afford that at this point, and dragons eventually realized that and accepted this new radical succession process when we unveiled it."

Clay had to admit that the system made sense, but still, there was aversion in the Mudwing to this new procedure. It sounded okay - great, even. Having no death in the succession sounded nice, but wouldn't a dragon keep coming back and trying to take the position? But was that a problem? Wouldn't the desire to keep coming back in the face of failure a good quality? But what if some tyrant attacked the government? Would a group of dragons without the absolute power of a queen have the ability to fight that other dragon off, or would they break apart into disagreement? Clay realized the answer to his last question after his mind asked it, at least in regards to the Nightwings, because no matter what weird power share they had created, they seemed to at least be holding their own against the singularly controlled Tears of the Rain.

There was something left on Clay's mind, though. "What happens if you die? You don't have a royal family…"

"If it's one of the military positions, those dragons have designated second-in-commands that will take over. If it's one of the other positions, we also have a backup system in place, where a couple of promising dragons chosen in advance will compete for the council position." Starflight answered almost as if his answers were rehearsed, Clay noticed. It was likely that the Nightwing had to have explained these exact same things to skeptical Nightwings and maybe even skeptical Rainwings when the government was first created.

Part of Clay wanted to think about this new system of government and find all its flaws and strengths, and part of Clay wanted to just leave it alone; it at least hadn't wiped the Nightwings out of the rainforest. But before either of Clay's parts could really think about either of those things, a voice came from the doors to the dining hall, forcing Clay to turn his attention towards it.

"Deathbringer, you told me they were on the _second_ floor." Clay turned his head to see Jambu, his scales not betraying too much of the dragon's emotions. "They were on the _third_."

"Oh, sorry," Deathbringer said, absentmindedly, although what the Nightwing was apologizing over, Clay had no idea. "But you have them?"

Jambu smiled at this. "Yes, I have them," he said.

Then Jambu pushed open the door beside him, his scales finally revealing a mischievous joyfulness, and Clay almost jumped out of his chair, along with Reed beside him. Clay's heart jumped almost as out of his chest, and Reed muttered in shock, "Pinch me; I have to be dreaming," followed by a small yelp as Beetle obliged. Because on the other side of those doors were, standing healthy and uninjured, their siblings.

The rest of Clay's troop were talking to each other, quietly, and didn't notice Clay and Reed at first. Crane saw her eldest brothers first and almost shrieked in happiness. Sora and Umber both turned their heads towards where Crane was looking - Sora gasped and stepped back, a smile overtaking her face, while Umber stepped forward, his mouth turning up in an even bigger smile. Pheasant was the only one who actually said anything as her own complexion grew a smile, shouting, "Clay! Reed!" And Marsh didn't do anything except lead the charge towards Clay and Reed, hitting Reed first, embracing him. Then Pheasant followed, then Crane, then Umber and Sora, all the Mudwings' dignity forgotten in the complete delight they were lost in. It was over; Clay's siblings were back, after everything they had been through, and Clay couldn't help but, his voice almost cracking, whisper, "Don't worry, troop. We're here. And we're going home."

"Excuse me," came Starflight's voice, rather harshly.

Clay looked up and saw an anxious Nightwing, yet one _commanding_ that anxiousness, in Starflight's place. The dragons next to Starflight were looking at him with the smallest bit of apprehension, but the speaking Nightwing didn't seem to care. Starflight was determined to say whatever he had to say, Clay could tell with a bit of a scare, and the Nightwing didn't look happy; he almost had a bit of irritation in his posture. "These dragons are still under my supervision," Starflight stated. "And we haven't discussed their terms of release yet."


	32. Part 2: Chapter 12

Beetle retorted first. She didn't exactly jump out of her chair, but it looked very much like she wanted to. She snarled, giving Starflight a death glare, "Oh, I can tell you what the terms of release are going to be, Starflight. You are going to let these Mudwings go."

Starflight shrunk back a little - he didn't handle verbal attacks very well, did he? - but that determination in his posture didn't fade. Clay felt his heart fall, quickly, into a bottomless pit. To him, it looked like he and his brother had run straight into an elaborate, Nightwing-built trap.

Clay's troop had nervously stepped away from Starflight, with the exception of Clay, who was determined to act like a true Bigwings and not let his siblings go again, at least not without a fight, and Reed, who was groaning, sounding depressed. "Of course," Clay's oldest brother muttered. "Of course. There's _always_ a catch." But Clay started to feel better once he saw the postures of the dragons around the room. Deathbringer was looking annoyed, but he wasn't jumping to intervene. Jambu, who had walked to the head of the table opposite Deathbringer, didn't give Clay a lot of readable emotions; honestly, he just looked tired. At the very least, Clay realized that they weren't in on whatever Starflight had planned, although they didn't seem in a hurry to stop it. Then there was Moon, who had almost shrunk under the table, and Fatespeaker, who was giving Starflight a somewhat unreadable look.

Starflight had recovered by this point, and had regained that power in his posture he had displayed earlier. "Look," he said, the indignation in his voice returning, "these Mudwings were put under _my_ command once we learned about his" - Starflight pointed at Clay - "fireproof scales from their interrogations. And they _remain_ under my command, and I do not have to release them as long as I retain that control."

"Well, you have to release them if you don't want to have a fully-trained and dangerous hybrid jumping on you and causing you a whole lot of pain," Beetle snarled, leaning towards Starflight.

"Beetle, stop," Deathbringer interjected as Starflight backed away from the threatening hybrid. "The Mudwings _are_ under his command - it was an odd shift, done mainly because of paranoia, but it was a legal shift nonetheless. Plus, if you attack Starflight, then Jambu and I will be forced to pull you off and arrest you - and you know you can't overwhelm both of us. You'll get in trouble, but you won't get anywhere else."

Beetle fell back a little, although she was obviously not happy. Clay, on his part, decided that, at this point, it would probably just be easier to play along than to argue - after all, his siblings were all sitting quietly and nervously behind him, so he knew that this wasn't another lie like Scarlet's. Clay stepped forward, and asked, hoping for the best but prepared for the worst, "Um, what do you _want_ for the terms of release, Starflight, sir?"

Starflight turned his head from Beetle and looked at Clay with what the Mudwing could only interpret as desire. It made Clay almost step back in fright - Three Moons, since when had this young, excitable Nightwing become so unnerving? "What I want," Starflight said, clearly, "is for you to stay here. The rest of your siblings can be escorted away. But you stay."

Clay blinked, although some gut feeling had told him that Starflight had wanted that control over him ever since he had seen Clay, ever since he had _heard_ about Clay. Why else would he risk bringing him into the rainforest? Clay couldn't even think too hard about what he should or _could_ do, though, before a whole congregation of dragons screamed, "No!"

"I did not come all this way to lose my Bigwings!" yelled Reed, stepping close to Clay in a heartwarming display of loyalty.

"We refuse to leave without our Bigwings," Sora stated, calmer than Reed, although with the same amount of inflexibility in her words as Reed's. There were other comments of a similar sorts from the rest of Clay's troop: another indignant yell from Umber, a shake of the head from Pheasant, a simple "No. Never." from Marsh, and a movement from Crane as she twined her tail around her brother's. Clay's heart was elevated back up; his troop would never leave without him.

But Beetle was the one who was the angriest, the one who had shouted "No!" the loudest, the one who wasn't even bothering to talk to Starflight in her irritated state. "You can't just let him do this!" she exclaimed, her words heading straight to Deathbringer. "You're the Head Council Member; you can do _something_!"

Deathbringer just half-grimaced, half-shrugged. "You know that's more of a title than an actual position of power," he said, looking at Beetle with a bit of apology. "I was chosen so I can take executive orders in the event of a voting tie. Yippee, but this decision wasn't a tie. It was a five to three decision to transfer these Mudwings to Starflight's control, Beetle. The idea of fireproof research was too big of an option to pass up for most of the dragons here, especially with all the trouble with Scarlet that we've been having."

Beetle angrily whipped her head back towards Starflight, who hadn't really reacted to anything Deathbringer had said and was instead still looking at Clay, the Outclaw once again looking like she wanted to tackle Starflight to the ground and choke him until he accepted her terms. Clay was actually finding Beetle's loyalty almost confusing. Sure, Beetle had told them that Outclaws were supposed to be loyal, but Beetle was acting _so_ loyal that she was acting rash, and so rash that Clay was starting to worry about her Nightwing connections. What would happen if Beetle lost those? Maybe, Clay thought, her actions were just a Beetle thing; maybe the hybrid just didn't want to leave something unfinished. Or maybe Beetle had grown to like Clay and Reed, and wanted to see them off happy.

There was a short silence while stares where exchanged across the table and where Clay was frantically wondering if it _would_ even be a good idea for him to send his troop away when compared to keeping them here with him. Clay wasn't sure Reed would even accept the leadership position, as Clay's brother clearly still blamed himself for the mess the Mudwings were currently in. And then there was the was the whole Tears of the Rain issue; did Clay really want to send his siblings back out into the rainforest? Clay was wondering if he and his troop were going to become permanent members of the Nightwing Kingdom when Jambu started to speak, slowly, his scales staying a controlled blue-purple. "Starflight, your proposition is a little excessive," he said, in a careful manner. "I shouldn't have to remind you that Moorhen - the only buffer between us and Blister - is not at war only because of these Mudwings. And if you don't return the entire troop to their home, Moorhen may get angry at _us_ , giving us even more problems than we already have."

Deathbringer nodded, despite not having taken a real side before this, saying, "Starflight, the big picture. You can't keep Clay here forever. Once Moorhen figures out we have the Mudwings here, the council will vote your control of them away to avoid any trouble with her."

"We can't just let him go!" Starflight argued, Clay uncomfortably recognizing a tone in the Nightwing's voice that was making Clay sound more like an object, not a dragon. "We'll never get another opportunity like this! If you let him go, then we'll never manage to learn anything about a rare and useful ability like his!"

"What exactly do you want from him?" asked Fatespeaker, softly. The female Nightwing hadn't said anything throughout the entire dinner, except for maybe a couple murmurs to Moon or Starflight, but now she was talking quite clearly, and despite the softness of her voice, there was a attention-drawing nature to it.

The few words left bouncing around in the room stopped; likely, most of the dragons in the room wanted the same information Fatespeaker did. Starflight, the only dragon with that information, seemed to have been temporarily paralyzed by Fatespeaker's words as his mind went over them. He turned his head the slightest bit, slowly, although with no hint of incredulity or irritation, to look at Fatespeaker. Then he just looked at her until he regained his voice. "Well," Starflight said, weaker than the yells before, but still maintaining some strength, "I'm not entirely sure. I want to test what his scales can and can't do - if there's a heat limit to them, if they work the same once they're pulled off of him, and if certain compounds react with his scales like they do with normal Mudwings'. I also want to figure out their make-up - what, chemically, makes them different than other Mudwings' - and see if we can artificially synthesize something like them for fireproof armor."

Clay found himself surprised; Starflight had calmed from a complete firebrand to a reserved scientist almost instantly. The male Nightwing was still in a form of thought, and Fatespeaker asked, in a tone of voice that made it sound like the two were discussing something alone, "How long might you need him for that?"

Starflight blinked, and said, the old shame returning, "I... a few days, maybe? The longest part of that process will be running chemical tests on his scales, and I won't need him there, personally, for that. But... I mean, I'll still need him after... there might be more questions about the scales that arise because of these original tests-"

"But those original tests will lay a good foundation for what the scales can do," Fatespeaker interrupted, talking smoothly. "And sometimes we have to take what we can get, and leave it at that."

Starflight blinked again, and almost stammered, "But… but what about… he's so…"

Fatespeaker raised her eyes at Starflight, and the Nightwing in front of her didn't do anything but stare back, his words slowly cutting off; Clay also noticed Deathbringer giving the Mudwings an amused look. Finally, after a few more unpleasant seconds, Starflight sighed, apparently admitting defeat. He turned back to the Mudwings, and said, "Okay, I'll change my conditions. All I want is to run a few basic tests. It shouldn't hurt you at all, physically, and it shouldn't delay you too much - I might be able to finish the majority of the tests in one day. Yes, that sounds good: I'll have one day of testing tomorrow, and then you'll be free to go. All of you."

Clay noticed Fatespeaker giving Starflight what could only be interpreted as an affectionate smile, noticed Moon slowly rising from her huddled, shy state, noticed Jambu and Deathbringer give the slightest nods of approval, and noticed his troop behind him relaxing. Even Beetle seemed satisfied, although not overjoyed at the conditions. So before anyone, including himself, could interrupt him, Clay accepted the terms.

* * *

There was an overarching feeling of nervousness in Clay after that, considering that Clay had no idea what Starflight would do to him during experimentation. Eventually, the dining ended, and Fatespeaker had led Clay's entire troop through the now darkening castle and towards the infirmary. There were torches burning in the hallways, which provided light, although Deathbringer had mentioned a curfew where all the lights except the ones at the wall and a select few in the castle would go out. While the group of Mudwings and Beetle, who was trailing behind with a smile, were being led towards the infirmary, Umber and Sora, mainly, took turns telling the story of what happened to them.

Scarlet had received them from a dragon named Amethyst with very little interest, and had almost immediately thrown them into the arena. However, Deathbringer had been at the Skywing Kingdom, the timing of which was only decided by complete chance, and as part of a deal currently in process, arranged for them to be moved to the rainforest. Scarlet had watched the Mudwings as they walked with Deathbringer into the rainforest, one of her guards holding a new, Nightwing-made crossbow - that was what she had been doing that night she couldn't join the Mudwings and Peril for dinner - and Deathbringer had taken Clay's siblings to the castle, which was the closest point of safety from Scarlet and his' meeting place, Deathbringer intending to take them back to the Mud Kingdom the next day. However, a look into their minds from Moon, during what should have been a negligible round of interrogations, had revealed Clay's fireproof scales, and Starflight had used this information to persuade the Nightwing council to place the Mudwings under his care. Clay's siblings had lived in a nervous state of not knowing Clay's fate and believing Reed was dead until Clay had dreamvisited Crane, and since then Clay's troop had been hopefully awaiting his and Reed's return.

Reed and Clay had taken turns telling their own stories about Scarlet and Peril and the Outclaws, and during this time of just talking and walking and not feeling like everything was going completely wrong, Clay almost felt the pain in his back disappear. It didn't mean he was healed; Fatespeaker changed Clay's bandage once they were back at the infirmary, and she stated that she was positive the wound would never completely heal. However, she did admit that the injury would stop becoming disabling soon if it hadn't already, and that only direct contact would cause much issue. While Clay didn't like having what basically amounted to a giant weak spot, he knew there was nothing he could do about it, and he figured that as long as no one slammed into his back, he'd be fine.

And Clay _couldn't_ worry too much anymore; there was something comforting about having his entire troop brooding over him. Clay almost laughed when he saw Pheasant helping Fatespeaker treat Clay; his troop, his real troop, _was_ with him again, and after only a day, they could go back home, where Clay could only hope everything could go back to normal. It was only hope, Clay reminded himself; if Blister really did want Moorhen destroyed, she wouldn't stop trying just because a random troop of Mudwings got back to their home. War still was a possibility. But Clay just wanted to feel normal, walk through his normal village, and live his normal life again.

Fatespeaker had said that Clay would be fine to sleep with his troop in a room outside of the infirmary, which made Clay feel even better. The Nightwing medic led the dragons through another dimly lit hallway and past a whole lot more guards, although Clay didn't have the mental power left to recognize any of the dragons. He was just now noticing his fatigue, and soon the walk through hallways and up some spiral stairs became a small struggle. Eventually, Deathbringer, who was talking with some Rainwing in the middle of a hallway, came into view. The Nightwing didn't say anything, but Clay's troop told him that the door he was at was their room, and that it had probably been modified for Clay and Reed to sleep in it, which was why the Rainwing was there with Deathbringer. Clay didn't even see a door at first, but when he did, he saw that it was similar to all the others in the castle. Part of Clay was starting to wonder how dragons found their way around; pretty much every door and hallway looked the same.

Beetle stayed behind with Deathbringer and the unknown Rainwing as Clay's troop led him and Reed into the room, where leafy beds similar to the ones in the infirmary were situated under a large window looking out onto the dark Nightwing village, the wall, and the rainforest beyond. Deathbringer said something about it being a guest room, although he remarked afterwards that they hardly ever had guests, which made the whole place somewhat purposeless. Clay's troop, excluding him and Reed, all laid down on certain beds as if they were assigned, leaving two beds for Clay and Reed. Clay noticed Reed looking backwards, and followed his brother's example in order to let his eyes fall on Beetle.

"I'll be right across from all of you," Beetle smiled at their glances back. Clay suddenly wondered how his siblings thought of Beetle; _he_ probably would have freaked out a little if one of his siblings had come into his hut back home with one of the most infamous Outclaws in Pyrrhia trailing behind. Three Moons, what did they think about the fact that Clay was, at the very least, friends with the feared Skywing champion?

"Yes, because some dragons here apparently think that Mudwings will mate with any dragon that isn't one of their siblings, Beetle has to sleep alone," Deathbringer muttered, sounding tired as well. "Of course, I know we don't have to worry about anything. If you were like that, you'd have been coming onto Beetle during our night at Eventide. Of course, she wouldn't let you get very far, but you'd still try. Three Moons, Beetle mating - it's not the easiest thing to imagine."

"Oh, so just because I don't want to have sex with dragons I hardly know means that I'll never mate," Beetle retorted with a glare towards Deathbringer, Clay picking up that this seemed to be a sore spot between the two. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"I believe you know me quite well," Deathbringer said, not suggestively, but as if he was simply stating a fact.

Beetle sighed in a bit annoyance - or frustration - and Reed took the opportunity to ask what was likely on everyone's minds: "Wait, what? What's with all this mating talk, all of a sudden?"

"Why do you think I - a hybrid Nightwing, not a pure blood one - ever got connections with these dragons in the first place?" Beetle asked, turning her head towards Reed. "I'll give you a hint: I've got Nightwing blood, and they've got a lack of Nightwings."

"Oh," Reed replied, as Beetle nodded, giving him a "Yeah, I know" look.

"Yeah, so, one day, some months ago, _this_ dragon," Beetle explained as she gestured towards Deathbringer, "comes to the Scorpion Den and requests audience with me, in return for 'extremely valuable information about the Nightwing tribe.' After my mom very reluctantly accepts and I make my way to him in the Scorpion Den, he launches into this huge sob story about how so many Nightwings are dead, and how the Nightwing tribe is dying, and then he jumps into something else entirely and asks me to come to the rainforest and choose a mate in order to foster a Nightwing egg - not a pure Nightwing egg, mind you, but still a Nightwing egg. Now, I had literally just turned old enough for dragons to even consider me old enough to mate, so, needless to say, I wasn't too eager for that idea. Then Deathbringer suggested that it didn't need to be a permanent mate, at which point I kind of punched him and stormed out the room. However, he was apparently very desperate for me to make him dragonets, and he made me agree to think about his suggestion in return for him allowing me to talk with him using my dreamvisitor. And as such, my connections with the Nightwings were born. Deathbringer's managed to drag me into the rainforest a few other times before, always playing some version of the matchmaker and trying to get me paired up with someone, be it himself or someone else, but, to his continual disappointment, I have not mothered any egg, nor have I attempted to."

Deathbringer had uncomfortably shifted during Beetle's story, before he defended himself, saying, "Hey, look. The Tears of the Rain can't last out there forever - for all their viciousness, they're really small; the amount of _Nightwings_ here outnumber them, and with a good portion of Rainwings on our side, it's just a matter of time until we slowly remove enough dragons from the Tears for the organization to collapse. At that point, we can move back into the greater rainforest area, but we'll have to re-build the kingdom, a good portion of the difficulty from that coming from the need for more dragons, especially Nightwings, who we have less of and who only mate for life. So, as pragmatic as this is, any more Nightwing couples, no matter how diluted the Nightwing blood of their children might be, would really help this kingdom."

Beetle snorted, and angrily replied, "Don't try to hide it, Deathbringer; you'd have me mate like a-" Beetle's words jerkily cut off here, the hybrid looking appalled at herself. Clay knew why: the simile always finished with "Mudwing." He mates like a Mudwing; he's done it with three others already. Oh, yeah, she'll have a one-nighter with you; I heard she mates like a Mudwing. It wasn't a nice phrase, and the comparison always struck some part of Clay; it _hurt_ whenever anyone used it. "I'm sorry," Beetle muttered, all the dragons in the vicinity knowing what she was apologizing for as she hung her head, which made the situation awkward enough for Deathbringer and the Rainwing to slowly stroll away and escape without any more words. Clay couldn't have held the use of the phrase against Beetle, though, even if she hadn't caught herself; the Outclaw had helped them so much already, and Clay knew she had just lapsed into the figure of speech from unconscious habit. Besides, there were a lot more hateful things Beetle could have said about Mudwings.

Yet Beetle did look truly disgusted at herself. Clay didn't know what to say, though, so he just awkwardly shifted away. He looked back at the younger members of his troop, all the dragons of which seemed unaffected by Beetle's remark - some were even asleep already. Clay turned to Beetle to try and comfort her, and say everything was fine, but Reed was there already.

"Hey," Reed said, with a small smile, trying to make the hybrid feel better. "It's fine. Don't worry about what you almost said. You didn't even say it, did you? That means it's not a big deal. Plus, it's not like the expression is entirely false; Three Moons, I could be a father at this point, considering the few mating sessions I've been to, and I wouldn't know it."

"It's different than that," Beetle muttered, clearly angry at herself. "That expression implies that you Mudwings are some lust-driven tribe who mate every single night with any female you find attractive, and that mating is all you do. But your tribe is so much more than that - and so what if your culture is different? If I say something like that, all it makes me is some hypocrite who despises discrimination against hybrids but supports it for purebreds."

"Three Moons, Beetle, you didn't even say four words, and now you think you're some monster," Reed comforted. "But you're not, okay? You helped us almost as soon as we woke up in the Outclaw base. You stayed with me, not wanting me to hurt myself, when Clay got hurt. And tonight, when Starflight wanted to keep Clay here, you defended my brother. You've helped us more than any other dragon in Pyrrhia."

Beetle looked at Reed with an expression of curiosity, almost, and Clay suddenly felt very removed from the scene. Finally, Beetle replied, slowly, "Three Moons, Reed, you're talking as if I've died, and you're giving me an eulogy."

Reed shifted a bit, and said, "Well, I mean, I've wanted to thank you for a while. And it kind of just slipped out when I was talking to you. But, uh, no matter when I said it, I mean it. Really. Thank you. You really have done a lot for us."

There was a pause, and then Beetle turned her head the slightest bit, as if she was trying to see Clay's brother in a different shade of light, as if that would explain his gratitude. Eventually, she replied, quietly and surprisingly gentle, "Thank you, Reed. I'll see you tomorrow." Then Beetle nodded a bit, smiled, and walked across the hall into her own room. Reed turned around and looked at Clay, but nothing came from either of the dragons before Reed started making his way to his bed. Clay's brother slumped down on it, closing his eyes and curling his tail. Clay made his way over to his own bed and laid down on it as well. He closed his eyes, and waited for sleep and then tomorrow to come.

 _One day left._

* * *

 **A/N: I'm not even going to say anything about the late update (except to say I'm not going to say anything about it), because the next couple updates could very likely be late, too - too much real stuff going on. I guess I'm just going to keep you all in suspense about when I update for a while. Sorry.**


	33. Part 2: Chapter 13

**A/N: Hey, everyone! This almost, _almost_ went up yesterday night, and then my brain sort of died in the last bouts of editing and I ended up not posting it. In retrospect, it would have gone up had I not spent a lot of time working on something that I eventually cut from this chapter and added to the next one. But whatever, it's up now! Yay!**

* * *

Clay had expected his first day back with his siblings to begin with his siblings waking up around him. He expected a few rounds of conversation with his troop and maybe even Beetle until Starflight came up and grabbed him to go down to testing. At the very worst, Clay expected his day to begin with, not transition into, him being dragged to Starflight for whatever the Nightwing wanted to do with him _before_ his siblings woke up. But Clay had not expected his first day back with his siblings to begin with him waking up from a nightmare.

There had been explosions, and screams, and flames, and death, and Clay was fighting a huge force of Skywings, all of them looking faceless and murderous, the village behind him - his village - erupting into the sky through blast after blast of dragonflame cactus. And Scarlet was there, too; every detail of her was perfect, every spot of melted gold in her scales and in her flesh exactly where Clay remembered it. But the scariest thing of all was that she wasn't laughing, or cackling, or even smiling evilly, she was just looking down, watching, from the sky above. Clay realized that the sky was almost split open, like Scarlet had fissured the whole world for her purpose, and that Scarlet was watching from above in what looked like her throne room if it had been placed in a rip in the sky, like she was not a dragon, but a god.

Clay had forced his eyes open, breathing heavily.

The rainforest was still dark outside, and Clay's window didn't give view to the outside in a way that gave him a visible glance of the moons or the stars. Clay didn't bother to try and estimate the time to a super specific point, but he did take a look around the room to remind his pounding heart that his siblings were safe and that _he_ was safe. Marsh was twitching a bit in his sleep, but it didn't seem like too much of an issue. So Clay slumped down, knowing that - _reminding_ himself that - at least for now, his siblings were safe.

Clay's mind went over this last thought: _At least for now._ But what would happen afterwards, when they had left the Nightwing Kingdom? A war was going to start between the Mudwings and the Skywings unless some small miracle occurred, and Clay's troop returning home would _not_ be that miracle, no matter what Clay wanted to think. Scarlet would not stop her aggression, and, according to Beetle and all the Outclaws Clay had talked with, that would lead to a destruction of his tribe.

Maybe it really would be safer to just stay in the Night Kingdom. Or maybe not - hadn't the Outclaws told Clay that Blister wanted the Nightwings destroyed, too? Maybe if Clay was a hero, he could stop the war. But Clay wasn't a hero; he was a nobody. Maybe, Clay thought with a sudden jolt, his troop could go to the Outclaws, and work there, permanently. Clay could, with surprising ease, see himself working with dragons like Webs, or Hvitur, or Asha, or Blitz, or Peril, or Beetle, or those two Mudwing sisters he had talked with, or even that downcast Seawing. The choice seemed safe enough for everyone involved: although Clay and his troop would likely be barred forever from their kingdom for betrayal, no one would otherwise get hurt from Clay's choice. Plus, was their home or their safety more important at this point? Maybe they would _have_ to go to the Outclaws - Scarlet was still after the Mudwings, as far as Clay knew, and she didn't seem like the type to give up easily. Could she track them to their old village?

Clay curled up again, trying to force himself to fall asleep again, trying to get the rest he knew he'd need, trying to push all these thoughts about the Skywing Queen away. Scarlet wasn't _here_ ; Clay reminded himself. Three Moons, the Scarlet Clay had just seen wasn't even _real_ , she was just a dream-made Scarlet. Dream Scarlet: an entirely different entity. But even as a dream, even when she was just watching him, Scarlet was still terrifying.

Clay forced his eyes to stay shut, trying to drown out the image of Scarlet's cruel eyes staring down at him, sizing up her next victim. Happy thoughts: plates of delicious food, his siblings smiling and frolicking with him when they were young, and his siblings hugging each other after the war had been finished, knowing that the world couldn't fall apart again. Clay's breathing steadied, and he felt sleep overtaking him, the beautiful blackness that blanketed him as his eyelids grew heavy… yes, everything would be fine…

"I'm almost insulted that you still think _I'm_ the enemy."

Clay's eyes shot open, and he looked around in panic as the voice reverberated around… somewhere. Where in Pyrrhia was he? Everything was black, the only thing giving off light being Clay - somehow - and multiple, randomly-placed occurrences of what looked like some weird, dark silver sort of obelisk. It seemed, Clay realized, to be a dream, albeit an unformed and nonsensical and mildly creepy dream. But... that voice... that voice hadn't been undefined; no, it had been as clear as Clay could remember...

"I'm over here, Clay," came the voice, again echoing off non-existent walls, filled with an oxymoronical mixture of harshness and comfort. Clay spun around and, terror rising in his chest, saw Scarlet, looking exactly like she had in his last dream, which meant that she looked the exact same as she had when Clay had actually seen her last. A semi-blurry version of her throne room was behind her, light pouring out from there, clashing intensely with the black space and random monoliths in the rest of the dreamscape. Clay could see the queen's chair, as well as Ruby and Vermillion's empty ones, and from there to both the left and right the room slowly lost definition and faded back into the black space. Clay noticed that the black ground he was on was covered in a vague liquid, kind of like a shallow depth of oil, and it reflected anything on top of it perfectly: the nonsensical obelisks, Clay, and Scarlet. Three Moons, she looked _exactly the same_ , exact for maybe a wavering around some of the gold in her scales; there were no real dream-caused inconsistencies. But Clay reminded himself that no matter how real Scarlet _looked_ , she wasn't _actually_ real; it was just another nightmare, another nightmare...

"Now, let's clear some things up before we talk more," Dream Scarlet smiled, lowering herself towards Clay, every word of hers made more terrifying by the fact that the echoes made it sound like more than one Scarlet was talking. "I am not a part of your mind, _Clay_. I am just as real as you are."

Clay backed away, heart pounding, trying to let his thoughts remain logical. She was lying; Dream Scarlet had to be lying. Unless Scarlet had a dreamvisitor, she couldn't come into his dream. No, she needed a dreamvisitor… a dreamvisitor… a dreamvisitor, like the one in her talons… Three Moons... _Three Moons, **how!?**_

"You know what this is," Scarlet almost purred, pleased at seeing Clay's eyes glance downwards and stay, confused and scared, on her dreamvisitor. "Smart Mudwing - it's a shame you left. I had so many plans for you and your brother; I was going to make you both into some of the greatest names in Pyrrhia."

Clay looked back up at Scarlet and kept backing away, his steps echoing throughout his dream with small splashes. Scarlet pressed after him, looking amused at Clay's fright.

"Yes, but then you _left_ me," she said, her voice taking on a caustic nature, her smile fading in controlled anger. "You _betrayed_ me. I had given you shelter, food, and I was about to give you power, and you ran away from me. And you didn't just do that, but you also _insulted_ me. You went against my orders, and you made me look like a fool; you two and those traitors, Blitz and Peaksoarer."

The immediate thought was that Scarlet, at least, didn't know about Peril, and that the champion was still okay. Clay didn't have any clue what Peaksoarer had to do with anything; maybe Scarlet had found out about his leniency to enforce the Mudwings' schedule. For all Clay knew, Peaksoarer was dead for what he had done in regards to Clay and Reed - a thought that sent a shock of guilt through the Mudwing.

"But I'm willing to forgive you."

Clay blinked, unconsciously stopped moving away from the queen in front of him, and then looked up at Scarlet in uncomfortable confusion. This was _Scarlet_ \- the Skywing Queen who threw others to their death for giggles, the one who was currently orchestrating a war for a reason of hers Clay still wasn't sure he truly understood. She didn't have a reputation for being a forgiving type, and she hadn't _seemed_ like a forgiving type when Clay had met her, so where in Pyrrhia was Scarlet taking this?

Scarlet stopped walking forward, and said, quietly, yet unmistakably, " _If_ you accept a certain number of my conditions."

Clay asked, automatically and weakly, yet with more courage than the Mudwing thought he possessed, "What do you want from us?"

"It's simple," Scarlet replied, a smile starting to return to her face. "You give me _one_ thing, and I'll forget everything you've done. That one thing I want is _you_. You and Reed. You two come to me, and I'll erase all your crimes from my records, and we'll start all over again."

It was a trap, and an incredibly obvious trap, at that. There was no way Scarlet would just let the Mudwings walk back into the Sky Kingdom like they were still were valued guests. Or maybe she would, but would then use the Mudwings for some ulterior motive - that seemed more likely. Clay didn't know what to say, though, and he didn't know what to _do_ , but luckily for him, Scarlet was continuing. "You see, I liked you two, and I do great things for the dragons I like. The first night I invited you to dine, your brother - I'll admit it - charmed me. Not many dragons can come face to face with me and still keep that sort of jovial nature he had, especially dragons that aren't real ambassadors - yes, I found that out quite quickly. And then both of you had such _loyalty_ \- you two flew straight into my talons not because of stupidity or ignorance or because of force, but because you just would do _anything_ to save your little brothers and sisters. Loyalty is a valuable quality, Clay, and one that's hard to synthesize. I eventually started to think that maybe I could use these charming Mudwings in front of me for something other than arena fodder. I was noting your abilities and strengths; all I had to do was twist them a bit. For example, redirecting that _immense_ loyalty towards someone who could make you much more... productive."

Clay blinked, not understanding everything Scarlet was saying, but still catching some of the subtext. Scarlet had wanted to change his loyalty; she wanted Clay to be loyal to _her_. But Clay's loyalty would always, _always_ lie with his siblings. This time, Clay snarled; he had a sudden knowledge that this was _his_ dream, and no matter how much Scarlet could hurt him outside of it, she couldn't do a thing to him _in_ it. "You'd never turn me against my siblings," he growled.

"You'd be surprised at what I can do, Mudwing," Scarlet responded, not appearing to be offended or intimidated in the slightest. "But nonetheless, I wasn't going to just make you loyal to me. I was going to give you power, Clay. I was going to give you the ability to kill with finesse unseen before. I was even thinking, although not very seriously about it, of having _you_ replace Peril as my champion. I've been thinking about getting rid of that Skywing for quite some time now, actually, ever since her incident turned her into the boring mess of a dragon that she is today."

"You'd never get me to do that!" Clay yelled after Scarlet's last point, immediately, for multiple reasons: he might fight in a war to protect his tribe, he might fight to protect his siblings or the dragons he cared about, and he might fight for the hope of peace, but he'd _never_ willingly fight in an arena to just provide entertainment for dragons - for any queen. Not even for Moorhen, and especially not for a queen that wasn't even his.

And then there was the fact that the idea of getting rid of Peril - in translated terms, having Peril executed or disposed of through an "accident" - made Clay feel undeniably enraged, the feeling originating from some intense loyalty to the Skywing Clay hadn't entirely realized to have had within himself. Already, the images were flashing through his thoughts: Peril crumpled, her blue eyes of fire blank, unfocused, and glossy, her body a mess of blood and torn flesh. Clay couldn't even imagine Peril resting peacefully after her death, with her wings folded, her eyes closed, and her body positioned like she was sleeping; no, Peril wouldn't get a funeral like that. Peril's fire would fade, her body would cool to something that would feel icy when compared to fire within her before, and Scarlet would then destroy any trace of the champion's existence. Peril would be cremated without any ceremony if her body would allow it, or she'd be thrown into an unmarked grave like she was nothing but vermin trash if it didn't.

Clay's thoughts about Peril weren't making him scared, though. They were infuriating him, and the Mudwing saw courage rush through him. Peril _wasn't_ going to die, because Clay _wasn't_ going into Scarlet's talons, because Clay would _not_ willingly be the cause of Peril's death, no matter how indirect.

Scarlet didn't seem aware of the hate that was starting to bubble in Clay - that, or she did and didn't care. She instead smiled, "Oh, Clay, you have _no idea_ what I can do to you. But I suppose now you feel that I'm a terrible monster of a dragon; you seem awfully angered.

"Perhaps you should know this, Clay. If you come to me, I will not kill you. I will keep my promise. And I will make you a dragon rivaling the likes of Mangrove, or Peril, or that little hybrid Outclaw you're working with.

"Yes, I know about that," Scarlet smiled when Clay's courage gave out and he gave her an uncontrollable look of shock. "I _know_ you're after your siblings, still, and I know you went to the Outclaws to look for them. But you won't ever get your siblings back; you'll never even get close to them. The Nightwings don't give anything up once they get their talons on it; your siblings are as good as dead in their claws. And if, for some unfathomable reason, the Nightwings don't bar you from your siblings, then _I will_." Clay found that the fact that Scarlet knew about Beetle was incredibly unnerving, and he found the comment about Scarlet preventing him from getting his siblings back even more so, but the rest of Scarlet's information seemed to be false. Her tone of voice implied that she felt that the Nightwings were unreasonable and that they would never actually let him into the rainforest. Clay tried not to let his posture or his expression reveal that he was in the heart of the Nightwing Kingdom, literally sleeping next to all his siblings.

"And know this, too: if you don't come to me, I will hunt you down and kill you." Scarlet was still smiling, with that confident power back in her expression. "You can't run forever, Clay. I have dragons everywhere. I am the queen of the Skywings; I have absolute power over _hundreds_ of others. And who are you? You're just one dragon. No, you can't hide forever."

Scarlet didn't snarl, despite her words; her smile was _still_ on her face, and she backed away from Clay the slightest bit. "I won't be able to talk again with you, Clay," Scarlet said, her voice slow and almost, terrifyingly, seductive. "Not like this; I'm borrowing this dreamvisitor from one of my... friends, let's say. Clay, my soldiers have orders not to attack you. Come with Reed, alone. You'll be escorted to me, and I _will_ make you great. You only have a week. Don't be stupid, Clay. Move on from your siblings and come to me, and become more than you ever could have imagined, or try to avoid me, and die." Then Scarlet nodded, her smile never faltering, and then she faded, and then she was gone.

The obelisks started shining white at this point, then the floor, then the air, and then Clay was awake, feeling nothing but terror.

* * *

Clay, needless to say, did not feel like going to get experimented on after this.

What Clay really wanted to do was run to Deathbringer or Jambu or Beetle or _someone_ _who would know what to do_. But, at first, Clay couldn't. Instead of doing anything, he just laid in his bed in a state of desperately wanting to do something, but not knowing what exactly to do, trying to calm himself down before he woke the entire castle or did something else stupid; Clay had to keep his cool and think. Scarlet, for all her intimidation and threats and animus-touched objects, didn't seem to know where Clay actually was. That meant that Scarlet didn't know as much as she wanted Clay to think she did. And that meant Clay was, for now, safe.

But the fact that Scarlet had even bothered to dreamvisit him made Clay nervous. Clay was starting to feel like Scarlet's obsession with the two Mudwing brothers was more than what she had said; Scarlet had assumed Clay and Reed her property, and she still felt that she owned them, and she did not take kindly to the loss of _her_ Mudwings. While Clay had no idea how in the world Scarlet planned to meld him into whatever form she choose, Clay did know that he wasn't going to find out. He had already decided that, no matter what, he was not going to fly into Scarlet's talons. Which brought up Clay's second worry: Scarlet had planned to stop Clay from ever getting his siblings back. How? She wouldn't be so rash as to just attack the rainforest simply to kill or otherwise incapacitate five Mudwings, right? Would she try to threaten the kingdom through diplomacy? Clay couldn't think of many more options; it all seemed to be either threats or violence.

The smallest sliver of light shone in through the window; Clay had either woken up from his first nightmare later than he had estimated, or he had slept for a longer time than he had felt like before his second. Clay turned his head, looked out the window, and saw the rainforest lighting up, slowly, the fires on the wall slowly going out as the sun rose. _Someone_ had to know about this. Scarlet had access to an animus-touched dreamvisitor, even if it didn't seem to be her own. Scarlet had what was looking like an unhealthy determination to - not kill, anymore, but enslave - Clay and Reed. And Scarlet had indirectly threatened Clay's siblings, and therefore, the rainforest. Clay thought, and found that Beetle seemed like the best option for the first confidant, with both her Outclaw connections and her closer relationship with the Mudwings. Clay rose to wake her, and tell her, in mild panic, about everything.

Then there was a shuffle from a bed nearby, and a voice came up before Clay could leave. "So, I'm assuming Scarlet came to you, too, and was all like, 'Come to me, my love; I'll make you the most thrilling killer in Pyrrhia?'" Clay glanced down and saw Reed, awake and now staring at Clay, the smallest bit of fear in his brother's eyes.

"Yeah," Clay replied, chiding himself for thinking that Scarlet would only come to him. Scarlet had explicitly stated that she had liked Reed; she wouldn't have ignored Clay's brother when he had escaped alongside Clay. Could Scarlet have gone to anyone else? Clay took another glance around at his siblings, his Bigwing instincts checking everything. Marsh had pushed himself closer to Umber in the night, but other than that, everything seemed normal. "Maybe without the whole 'my love' part, though," Clay added after a minute, half-wondering if Reed was being serious about Scarlet's words.

"You're not considering it, are you?" Reed asked as Clay moved over and sat down close to him. "Going to her?"

"No," Clay replied, instantly. "It has to be a trap of some sort."

"No duh," Reed responded, albeit worryingly. "So what in Pyrrhia do we do? I don't know if we can run from her, Clay. If she told you what she told me, then she told you that she has dragons everywhere, and I'm inclined to believe her. And she told me that I'd never get my siblings back no matter what I did, and while that's not true, obviously, she said that she'd make sure of it herself, saying something about a 'surprise.' I don't know if home is safe, I don't know if here is safe, I don't know if _anywhere_ is safe."

Clay didn't know how to respond; his brother's worries were more or less his. So he and his brother just stared down, stared at each other, stared at the door. "I say we talk to Beetle," Clay finally suggested, bringing his original plan to his brother's attention. "She's an Outclaw, and one with a lot of connections. She probably knows the most about Scarlet's capabilities and what we could do to avoid her."

"Do you think we _could_ join the Outclaws, Clay?" asked Reed, the question sudden. "Would that keep us safe from Scarlet?"

Clay just looked down, telling Reed that he had been wondering that not too long ago. But, along with the freedom fighters, there were cold-blooded thieves and killers in the Outclaws, not to mention the spies. The organization wouldn't be completely safe; it would be nowhere near completely safe. Could anywhere be completely safe, anymore? Clay voiced his concerns, and Reed nodded, but before Clay's brother could respond with any words, there was a knock at the door. Clay absentmindedly called for the dragon outside to come in, and a Rainwing entered, scroll in his talons, looking at the Mudwings with a clearly curious expression.

The Rainwing looked around with almost naivety in his eyes, which was strange, considering the fact that this dragon was clearly older than Clay. He took in Clay's still slumbering siblings with interest before turning up to the awakened Mudwings, cheerfully, saying, "Starflight wants to see Clay as soon as the situation allows. I was supposed to give you the scroll, but since you're awake, I probably don't need to do that, right?" _This_ was what Clay had expected from a Rainwing: a happy, bubbly, inquisitive dragon, one who wasn't a soldier trying to protect Nightwings along with members of his or her own tribe, one who wasn't killing himself from shame, or one that wanted an entire tribe dead. But Clay had too much other thoughts in his mind to really dwell on this; now, on top of everything having to do with Scarlet and imminent war, he had to worry about this Nightwing scientist.

"I guess you should go," Reed said, looking over at Clay. Clay knew Reed was right; it was best to fulfill their promise to Starflight and avoid any trouble with the Nightwing. That way, they could be free to maneuver around Scarlet sooner. "I'll talk with Beetle," Reed continued. "I'll tell her everything. We'll figure out what to do when you get back."


	34. Part 2: Chapter 14

**A/N: ...Wait a second. Today is Valentine's Day, which means that it's February 14. That means that the date is 2/14 (at least in the American style of dating, anyway). With the new and improved chapter titles (made because, as people have pointed out, this is now the longest fanfic in the _Wings of Fire_ spectrum (Yay, I suppose!) and it's just going to get longer, so I felt like some more organization was needed), we learn that this is part 2, chapter 14. Also, this chapter is a pretty shippy chapter, coinciding with the theme of Valentine's Day. Also, the last update was on Thursday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - the count of those days equal four! Four is the last number of fourteen! That's three coincidences! Triangles have three sides! ILLUMINA-**

 **Okay, but seriously, I'm back. Saturday was kind of a bust, and this chapter took freaking forever to finish (as the super late in the day update shows), but I managed to get it up today, Valentine's Day, as part of a rather strange coincidence. Also, _five thousand views!?_ Not to mention, like, everything else awesome about you all (reviews, followers, favorites)!?Holy smokes, I just want to say that you all are awesome! Thank you all so much! I love you all! ...Okay, uh, story time now.**

* * *

"Sorry," squeaked the Rainwing in front of Clay for about the fifteenth time that half hour. "I swear that he told me to bring you to the laboratory, and that he'd be down soon. I'm so sorry that we have to walk around, and now your back is probably hurting, and I'm just super sorry-"

"Please stop apologizing," Clay interrupted. "It's not even a big deal. And don't worry about my back, okay? _I_ was the one who insisted on following you around, remember?"

"Oh, I know," the Rainwing answered, before launching into apologies again, anyway. Clay sighed, inwardly. He and his slightly hyperactive (which was strange, considering, as Clay reminded himself _again_ , that this dragon was _older than him_ ) Rainwing escort had walked down to the room where Starflight had been the day before. Unexpectedly, they had found no Nightwing waiting. They had then waited for a while, but nothing happened. Considering Starflight had almost taken Clay hostage the night before, there didn't seem to be a good explanation for the Nightwing's actions. Clay had almost visualized Starflight as never leaving his laboratory; why would the Nightwing not come to do the experiments he so desperately wanted to do?

There had been some asking around, and Clay's Rainwing - guard, perhaps? - had eventually pinpointed Starflight's location. The scientist was apparently elsewhere, although Clay didn't catch the exact location, and Clay's escort had offered to go get Starflight while Clay waited in the lab. But Scarlet was still on Clay's mind, making the Mudwing irrationally nervous; he did _not_ want to wait in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar place all alone. Plus, when Clay heard that the Rainwing was going somewhere where Clay had never gone before, the Mudwing felt himself growing curious and wanting to follow. After a few seconds of persuasion, during which the Rainwing revealed himself to be _way_ more guilty about Clay's situation than he should have been, Clay was tagging along with his Rainwing down to… some room. Where was he going, again?

Mild irritation was spiking up in the Mudwing's back as Clay walked with the Rainwing through some hallways and such, down to the room that Clay probably should have asked the purpose of at some point. Clay passed some vaguely familiar sights: what looked like the door to the dining hall (it was hard to tell) and a carving on the wall that _definitely_ looked familiar. Then the scenery had become completely unfamiliar, and Clay had simply tried to take in these new parts of the castle. These parts in question seemed pretty much the same as any other part of the castle, and Clay didn't see any landmarks differentiating anything from any other thing. Clay had been thinking about this when he had turned a corner and suddenly arrived at an _insanely_ guarded set of doors.

Clay quickly took in the guards: there was a duller shaded Rainwing standing tall in front of the two doors, a massive scar, likely from a three-clawed strike, across her face, and to each of her sides at the ends of the doors was a fully-armored and crossbow-holding Nightwing guard, as well as a slightly-more-colorful-than-his-or-her-commander Rainwing guard, totaling five dragons protecting this one set of doors. And those were just the ones that were visible; Clay kept getting the uncomfortable feeling that at least one hidden dragon was watching him along with the visible ones.

The Rainwing escorting Clay, who Clay was just realizing the very colorful scales of - more colorful than most other Rainwings that he'd seen, and certainly more colorful than any of the guards - started talking with the Rainwing directly in front of the doors, cheerfully and without hesitation. "Hi, Bromeliad!"

Bromeliad flinched, almost like she had been physically hit, and muttered, "Bumblebee, I'm on duty. You _will_ speak respectfully…"

Bumblebee yawned, overdramatically, showing that he could care less about formalities or military discipline. "Okay, hi, _Commander_ Bromeliad. Can I come in?"

Bromeliad didn't look super comfortable at letting the Rainwing inside wherever this place was, but she did it anyway, with a, "Just don't break anything." However, Clay was barred from entering, the Rainwing commander - Three Moons, that sounded strange - saying that she didn't want any outsiders in the room, although why, Clay couldn't tell. The doors kind of looked like the throne room doors in the Skywing Kingdom, as Clay noticed a more intricately designed carving and even a couple gems on the door, but the Nightwings would have no use for a throne room, would they? Bumblebee slipped inside the doors, and Clay saw _even more guards_ in intervals between this door and another door, both Rainwing and Nightwing. Before Bumblebee got to the other set of doors, though, Bromeliad shut the first set and blocked Clay's view of this passageway. Clay suddenly found himself awkwardly staring at the scarred Rainwing, growing very uncomfortable very quickly.

Clay stared for a couple seconds, then sighed and took a few steps away from the guard force, allowing the dragons composing it to relax a bit. Clay started pacing a little bit, trying to shake Bromeliad's somewhat uncomfortable gaze. "So, as I was saying," eventually came one of the Rainwing guard's voices as Clay walked, in a whisper loud enough to hear but not loud enough for Bromeliad to consider it disruptive. Clay stopped pacing, glanced up, and saw the talking Rainwing turning to the Nightwing next to her, who Clay could only assume was her partner. "At that point, I was pretty sure one of the dragonets had stolen the mango. But no matter who I asked, no one seemed to know anything about my mango. I didn't even care about getting it back at this point; I just couldn't understand where it had gone. I went through all the dragonets' names in my mind, and then I remembered that there was one dragonet left, who I had forgotten about: a girl named Tamarin. Well, she had managed to sneak the mango away, but no one asked her about it because she had been blind. No one thought she could've done it, and yet she had masterfully snuck the fruit away when we hadn't been looking, so we only found out that _she_ had taken the mango after it was in her stomach."

Clay was now staring at the Rainwing and Nightwing combination pair next to Bromeliad; surprisingly, the Nightwing seemed to be listening, not just out of obligation, but from some form of interest. And for some reason, the Rainwing was recounting this story somberly, although a lost mango stolen by a blind dragon seemed to be an almost humorous story; it didn't exactly scream "heartbreaking tale." At least, it didn't until the Nightwing spoke. "So, let me guess," he said, quietly and empathetically. "Despite her smarts, she was euthanized because she was blind."

The Nightwing's partner nodded. "Yeah," she said, her voice cracking a little bit, her previously controlled scales turning the slightest bit blue. "And she was _so_ smart. She was _not_ 'unfit for work.' She could've done something if Fierceteeth had just given her a chance before... before _murdering_ her..." The Nightwing with this Rainwing gave his partner the smallest flick of a tail, meant to comfort her, and the Rainwing smiled and curled her tail around his, which Bromeliad, perhaps thankfully for them, didn't see, as the Rainwing commander had been turned to watch Clay, not her guards.

These two dragons, from completely different tribes, were emphasizing with each other; they could even be friends, _good_ friends. It wasn't just the higher up citizens that wanted this dual society to work; there were more dragons wanting peace than that, who were willing to try anything for it. But even so, it was quite clear that some dragons were not the happiest with the arrangement in question, evidenced even by the dragons in front of Clay. Because even as the example of tribal interworking was unfolding in front of the Mudwing, it was being juxtaposed with the pair of dragons on Bromeliad's other side: the Rainwing guard on that side was clearly tired, but he was trying extremely hard to not show it. And yet the Nightwing next to that Rainwing knew about his partner's fatigue, and was smirking the slightest bit, giving off a sense of superiority and hostility and a sense of, "Oh, _poor_ _Rainwing_. Maybe you shouldn't be doing the work that only Nightwings should do, and instead go back to the mindless labor."

Bumblebee suddenly poked his head and only his head out of the doors, a display that wrenched Clay out of his thoughts due to its almost comical nature. "Bromeliad, where's Starflight?"

"Starflight?" repeated Bromeliad, not mumbling anything about disrespect and instead only turning towards Bumblebee, thinking for a second. "Oh," she said, finally, "Moon wanted to see-"

"Oh," Bumblebee said, interrupting Bromeliad as if the half-finished sentence made perfect sense. "Okay, so he'll be in his room. Thanks, Brom- um, Commander Bromeliad. Sorry, Clay. We've got to go upstairs now." Bumblebee pushed past the doors and Bromeliad and started leading Clay away from whatever the guarded room was.

Every guard, including Bromeliad, relaxed at this point. As Clay moved forward, he asked, since the security against one of their own sounded odd, "Wait, what does Moon have to do with this? Why wouldn't she be able to just come in there with Starflight?"

"Moon's too dangerous," Bumblebee replied, as if Clay had asked an obvious question. However, Clay was a bit perplexed: Moon had struck him as many things, even as a somewhat aggressive dragon, but she had not struck him as a particularly _dangerous_ dragon.

"I guess she's okay now, with her magic necklace," Bumblebee continued, his tone more serious and his words only confusing Clay more. "And I guess she was okay when she used to live on the outskirts of the village, when Fierceteeth was queen, even though she would go off into the rainforest and hide a lot. But then she had to move in here with the rest of us to hide from the Tears of the Rain, and she just..." Bumblebee faded off before continuing, "Look, she'd always be doing weird stuff: a lot of times she would stare blankly at a wall or something and mutter things to herself, or she'd just break out crying and huddle alone somewhere, and then _sometimes_ she would just suddenly scream at nothing and position herself in some corner, snapping at anyone who came near, telling them to shut up despite them never saying anything. We tried to help her, but one day she just snapped and… well, it was bad. Starflight managed to subdue her, though, and she was arrested and sent into the dungeon. Eventually, she was rehabilitated and released back into the kingdom with the promise that her new magic necklace would keep her under control."

Clay let this all sink in. Magic necklace? As in, animus-touched? Were there even animus dragons in Pyrrhia anymore? Clay was pretty sure he'd heard somewhere that there weren't, but, then again, he had also heard a lot of things that were turning out not to be true. And then there was Bumblebee's story about Moon: the Rainwing's story made Moon sound no less than insane without her necklace, but that didn't seem to match with anything Clay had seen. Except, the Mudwing thought, Deathbringer's tenseness around Moon when her necklace was off - that would match up with the Rainwing's story. But if Moon's necklace was the only thing keeping her sane, why had she ever taken it off, and why had she seemed more or less sane when she had? Maybe the insanity came gradually, although why, Clay couldn't really guess.

Moon on Clay's mind, the two dragons walked up some stairs and through some hallways until Clay started wondering where they were even going. Eventually, though, Bumblebee made it to a door that, unsurprisingly, looked more or less the same as the rest of the doors in the castle. The door had been pushed open by Bumblebee with little hesitation, and Clay had been surprised at what was clearly Starflight's abode, although he shouldn't have been: the room was not actually very fancy. In all honesty, the only thing that set it apart from his and his siblings' room were the shelves and the scrolls. Scrolls were everywhere: scrolls in shelves, scrolls on top of shelves, scrolls that looked like they had been recently opened on the bed. Starflight wasn't reading anything right now, though; he was crowding around something with dragons Clay recognized as Fatespeaker and Moon.

"So he knows we're here?" asked Fatespeaker, softly, as Clay and Bumblebee walked in, slowly. "He can already hear me?"

"Yeah," Moon replied, softly and much more in character than anything Bumblebee had said, although Clay found himself a bit confused about the identity of "he." Moon continued, lifting her head up to smile at Fatespeaker, "He loves it when one of you is talking." Who in the name of all the moons was "he?" Not Starflight, since he was one of the dragons being referred to - that is, unless Starflight liked to talk to himself and also referred to himself in the third person every now and then. Were they talking about... _him_? As in, Clay? Moon suddenly laughed, and turned her head towards Clay, her smile unfading, her necklace nowhere in sight. "No, we're not talking about you, Clay."

Starflight jumped a bit and turned his head, looking straight past Bumblebee and straight towards Clay. "Clay!" he exclaimed, somewhat flustered despite what was clearly the remnants of a smile on his face. "Sorry! I didn't expect you to wake up so quickly, and then I got distracted... it doesn't happen very often, sorry, we'll get these tests done soon enough..." Three Moons, Starflight apologized about as much as Clay's Rainwing escort.

Starflight sprung up, mumbled that it was okay for Bumblebee to leave, which the Rainwing did, rummaged through some various scrolls, grabbed a couple, and lifted Moon's necklace from atop a scrollshelf, where Clay hadn't noticed it before. Then Clay's eyes moved back to where Starflight had been before, and the Mudwing just stared. _That_ had been Starflight's distraction.

Of course, Clay realized, Starflight wasn't _just_ a scientist and had a life outside of research and weapon-making and whatever else he did. Of course, Starflight was Clay's age, which meant that the Nightwing _was_ old enough for the thing in front of Clay to make sense, especially considering the conditions the Nightwings were in. And of course there had been something in between Fatespeaker and Starflight present down at the dinner last night. But, still, both Starflight and Fatespeaker were relatively young, and the Nightwing scientist had seemed kind of, well, morally-ambiguous and obsessed with science the night before. Starflight hadn't ever struck Clay as being a father.

But as the Mudwing stared at the dragon egg, which Fatespeaker was curling up next to as Starflight was fitting Moon's necklace back on, things started to make sense. If Nightwings here were so desperate for dragonets that they'd try to get a hybrid to mate right after she turned of-age, then why wouldn't they do the same for the purebred dragons already in the kingdom? And now the guards at that room made sense - it was the hatchery, and after what had happened to the last hatcheries, it made sense for dragons to guard the new one.

"Fatespeaker, Bromeliad will kill me if you don't get our egg back down there in twenty minutes, okay?" Starflight said, absentmindedly yet gently pushing Moon over to Clay's side, the smaller Nightwing's breathes shaking a bit as the strange powers of her necklace overtook her. "I'd like to keep that promise; I have a hard enough time getting Bromeliad to let me take our little dragonet out of the hatchery as it is."

"I'm just going to talk to him a little while longer," Fatespeaker replied, looking up at Starflight. "Go easy on our Mudwing, okay? Be nice to him, especially if you test near his Rainwing wound." Then Fatespeaker gave Clay a smile before turning her head down towards her egg, and began not to talk to it, but to sing to it.

Clay couldn't look away. Not because he was very surprised anymore; the two Nightwings together made enough sense, even if they weren't very old. Clay was staring because he was feeling many different conflicting and not always completely understandable things at seeing this motherly affection: he didn't care about the affection, he loved the affection, he was angry at it, his heart was aching because of it, he felt nostalgic and content as he remembered the few times Asha had acted like Fatespeaker, he felt sad as he realized that most Mudwing troops would never get this motherly love, love subtly different and yet so unlike the love between Mudwing siblings, and he felt shocked as he thought his last thought, knowing that most Mudwings didn't care about the way their tribe worked and that all Mudwings only _needed_ their siblings, and knowing that he was thinking like a crazy revolutionary... like an Outclaw, perhaps...

At this point, Moon's had stabilized a bit, the smaller Nightwing turning back into the untalkative dragon from the dinner before. Was it Clay's imagination, or was Moon looking a little downcast at Fatespeaker's words, as well? Starflight pushed Clay a little bit, jerking the Mudwing's stare away from Fatespeaker. Starflight led Moon and Clay out of the room, and they had all walked towards the lab for a bit before Starflight asked, kind of quietly, "Is it that surprising? Do I just seem too... _hostile_ to father an egg?"

Clay just glanced towards Starflight. The Mudwing realized that Starflight thought that he had been staring at Fatespeaker because the two Nightwings had seemed, to Clay, like an odd or impossible couple, not because Clay had been having a minor internal plight. That didn't seem right; couldn't Starflight read his mind? Hadn't he known what Clay had been thinking about?

Starflight didn't notice Clay's new confusion, and instead explained as they walked, falling back to Clay's side as if Starflight was an old friend, "I mean, we hatched almost simultaneously. We became friends, but nothing more, after we met each other at school. Then, when I was discovered to be incredibly gifted, my father took me out of the standard Nightwing school and taught me himself. Fatespeaker and I didn't see each other for years, except in passing glances and tribe-wide congregations. Eventually, my dad said that I was learned enough to begin working like I was a fully-grown Nightwing. Our queen accepted his proposition, and I was tasked with designing weapons when I was only a dragonet. This was when the crossbow was conceived - I went digging through some, well, a lot of things, really, but mainly scrolls, and I found the designs of weapons that scavengers use in one, and I wondered if a dragon-sized version of a certain weapon - the crossbow - would be effective. The concept seemed simple enough, and I built the first model, and then, when I pulled the trigger, the thing burst apart in a flame-less explosion, almost killing me."

Starflight shuddered a bit as the recollection of the event was told, but didn't slow down his pace or his line of speech. "I woke up days later in the Nightwing infirmary, a dragon from my old school days holding her head over me," he continued. "Fatespeaker had taken the path towards becoming a nurse after I had left school. She was taking care of me as part of her practical medic training. We started talking again, pulled together by our old ties, and as she took care of me and we started telling each other about everything, I starting feeling... different. And even after I was better, I still found myself going to the infirmary and talking with her when she wasn't working, always feeling better whenever she was around. I asked my dad about it. He smiled and told me I was falling in love."

Clay was finding himself listening more intensely, now, likely because of the topic of love, which he still was sure he didn't really understand all the way. However, Starflight's tone sunk a little, and he said, "Then we invaded the rainforest, and the volcano erupted. My father insisted beforehand that I go to the rainforest with my sister, Fierceteeth. He said it was because he wanted me to test my crossbow in a practical environment. He did it because he wanted me to be safe - he knew the volcano was going to erupt. Fatespeaker also managed to get into the rainforest; she was one of the last dragons to leave and get to the rainforest alive after Morrowseer told everyone to flee into the rainforest, right before the volcano erupted. We only stayed together for a few days, though, before Fierceteeth, our new queen, put me in charge of developing all sorts of new technology, putting me with her in the castle that was just being constructed, and before Fierceteeth put Fatespeaker in the outer sector of the old Rainwing village, separating us again. We might have fallen apart after that - I had been made a prince, and I would have been expected to mate with some important dragon if Glory had not rebelled. Even without the whole prince thing, we hardly saw each other; our jobs just kept us too busy. Really, the dragon that kept us together was Moon."

Clay glanced back at Moon, who was slightly behind Clay and Starflight, and who flashed the smallest shy smile back at the Mudwing. "Fatespeaker took care of her after she lost her parents to the eruption," Starflight said, indirectly explaining Moon's earlier somber mood to Clay, "but she'd come to school in the castle, and she'd sneak me messages from Fatespeaker when she could. That was how our relationship was until the rebellion - two dragons just sending notes to each other, destined to never be together, an impossible pairing. Then Moon managed to sneak into my lab one day, and when she got to me she almost pulled me outside, crying that she'd seen me dying. We left the castle in secret, and not but an hour after we left Glory killed my sister and everyone else in the castle. Fatespeaker had been hidden by the Rainwings in her sector - healing dragons indiscriminately has its advantages. We joined with Deathbringer, retook the castle and the village here, and started living with each other once the council was established. Even if there hadn't been this huge push for more Nightwings, we would have mated sooner or later. With the push, it just turned out to be sooner. Fatespeaker laid her egg about a month ago. Yes, there's still a long time before our dragonet hatches, but, still, it's wondrous to just see our egg, or to just feel it, or just do... _anything_ with it..."

Starflight had trailed off, looking ahead. Clay took a glance at the Nightwing next to him, and not seeing a frightening dragon anymore - at least, not a _completely_ frightening dragon. Starflight had thrown off some of the shade surrounding him and had clearly revealed an entirely different side of himself to Clay that the Nightwing had only hinted at before with the telling of his story: the side that wasn't obsessed with science, the loving and caring side of the Nightwing. Clay took a breath, turning his head forward again when Starflight didn't really say anything more. But Clay didn't feel too worried about the testing anymore.


	35. Part 2: Chapter 15

**A/N: Remember when I used to, like, not use Author's Notes every chapter? Yeah, I remember, too. I also remember when I used to have a constant update schedule. (Oh! I think I just burned myself a little bit.) That was when I could indirectly answer a lot of people's questions and quell some other people's concerns by just posting my regular story. Anyway... um, thanks for being patient; everyone who has read this far into the story is _awesome_. One day I might get back to my old update schedule. Yes, one day... *Dramatically stares off into the distance*  
**

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The closest thing Clay could compare Starflight's movements to was a bug. Starflight had been mostly quiet while walking Clay down to his lab, but the second Starflight had made it to their destination, he had immediately regained his excited nature. Now Starflight was fluttering all around Clay, occasionally moving away to scribble something on a scroll. His movements were quick and seemed almost sporadic sometimes, and yet Starflight clearly knew exactly what he was doing. Clay hadn't even known how many scales of his Starflight had removed from him until Clay saw the Nightwing carrying about fourteen whole, undamaged, fireproof Mudwing scales in some jar - that was how painless and unnoticeable the process had been. And no matter how jumpy Starflight seemed to be, he was actually the exact opposite of clumsy: at one point, the Nightwing hit a rickety table with a lot of valuable-looking science things on it, and Clay thought all the things would fall and break, but Starflight stabilized the entire table with his tail without even looking back.

Starflight moved so fast that Clay could hardly even tell what the Nightwing was _doing_. Clay could remember events: Starflight attaching some odd thing onto Clay, mumbling that "This _shouldn't_ hurt." Fatespeaker coming in about twenty minutes after Starflight's group had made it to the lab, bringing a breakfast of meat and fruit for Clay - Three Moons, had Clay almost _skipped breakfast_? The female Nightwing taking off Clay's bandage and clearing the dry mud away as Starflight set up something science-looking, leaving Clay's wound open to the air. Fatespeaker winking at Starflight as she left, and Starflight getting distracted from his science work for just a second as he smiled back. The following test when Starflight gradually burned Clay's acid wound - the wound hurt more than it should have, but at least the injury seemed to heal quickly and didn't leave any permanent damage, like normal. Then there was the time when one of Starflight's science tubes exploded, and the Nightwing pushed away from Clay and ran over to the shattered tube, looking less disappointed or frustrated and more ecstatically thrilled.

But these were only bits and pieces; Starflight was doing _so much more_ _stuff_ than that. He'd be glancing at something on Clay's side one second, then writing something on a scroll laying on one table the next, then he'd jump over to another table that held all his science tubes and take quick notes, and then he'd be behind Clay, lifting up and then marking something on the Mudwing's tail. Eventually, Clay just gave up trying to follow the Nightwing and instead focused on other things, like his breakfast.

Then there was the issue that Clay didn't have a _clue_ about what anything Starflight was doing meant. Clay didn't know why Starflight had to look at and poke and feel every part of him - _every_ part of him - always scribbling down notes, which Clay once got a glance of and promptly understood nothing about. Clay didn't know why Starflight had about twenty different bubbling solutions on a table, and why, when a certain solution would suddenly change color or hiss or something, Starflight would drop whatever he was doing and run over to it, exhilarated. The only thing Clay kind of understood would be when Starflight would look over Moon's side, circling something that she had written down, always mumbling something to the effect of, "This is probably important…"

Oh yeah, Moon. She was there, too, her necklace off again, asking question after question in another round of interrogations, writing down who knew what on a scroll in front of her. Everything from "When did you first learn about your scales?" to "What do you believe the heat limit of your scales is?" to "Has something ever burned you and hurt you, and what were the circumstances if something has?" Part of Clay was wondering why Moon had to even bother with the questions; couldn't Moon just creepily stare at him and learn all the answers? Or did Nightwing mind-reading work differently than that, as Clay was at least sometimes starting to think seemed like the case?

Starflight bounced around, Moon asked questions, and Clay answered those questions before nibbling on fruit, which was really soft except for the pits, and which was really, really sweet - too sweet - and which Clay wasn't sure he really liked, for what felt like a couple hours. Starflight never did anything like suddenly strapping Clay to a table and pulling out a rusty saw and then cutting the Mudwing open, laughing evilly while lightning struck in the background. Honestly, the experience was just a lot of question answering, courtesy of Moon, and a lot of painless experiments, most of which were done without Clay ever really noticing, courtesy of Starflight. Clay wasn't even aware of Starflight taking the couple of apparatuses that he had strapped onto Clay off until the scientist had announced that he was finished with testing. "That was it?" Clay asked, looking over at Starflight, who was only half-paying attention to Clay, focusing more on the science tubes in front of him.

"I told you; the chemical tests will be what takes up time," Starflight said, not turning back towards Clay, scribbling down notes as a certain solution turned orange. "I was going to design more tests - tests I couldn't do now, because I didn't know what might hurt you - based around the results of these ones, but I... I _will_ keep my promise. You're free to go." Clay saw the smallest amount of guilt, not despair, in Starflight as the Nightwing said this. Then Moon asked her next question, turning Clay's attention back to the Nightwing in question.

More time passed. Clay noticed that Moon was starting to act a bit - oh, possessive, maybe? She just didn't seem to want to stop with her questions. Sure, Moon _was_ asking questions pertaining to Clay's scales, but this relationship could be a bit stretched. Did it really matter where Clay and his troop got their firewood from when Clay had resisted a lot more than a campfire?

It had to be because of Moon's necklace. The mind-reading Nightwing avoided her necklace almost unconsciously, always putting distance between it and her. Why? What could the necklace possibly do to her? Even as Clay answered another one of Moon's strange questions, the Mudwing found himself putting most of his attention towards this puzzle.

When Clay had first seen Moon take the necklace off, he had thought that the smaller Nightwing had seemed overwhelmed by something. So perhaps some energy - or something to that effect - was rushing into Moon when she took the necklace off, and Moon didn't want to lose that energy. If that was the case, what could that energy be doing to Moon - or, in other words, what did the necklace need to block? Well, _with_ the necklace, Moon was a lot less confident and she was a lot more shy. What else was different about Moon with the necklace? Well, Clay thought with the smallest jolt, Moon had never let on that she could read his mind with her jewelry on. During the walk to the lab, where the Nightwing had been wearing the necklace, Moon hadn't said _anything_ in response to Clay's thoughts, contrasting with the Moon without her necklace, who often interjected herself into one of Clay's thought processes without any invitation. And she had seemed to shy away from conversation when Clay tried to bring it up, meaning something about talking with her necklace on made Moon uncomfortable. So maybe... just maybe... the necklace was blocking whatever Moon needed to read minds, and that was what was making her uncomfortable, since she didn't have that extra information about the dragons around her that she would normally have. Why would the Nightwings need to do that, though? Maybe Moon's mind-reading powers were too powerful for the dragonet, and the Nightwings had been forced to block it - in order to let Moon keep her sanity that she had lost without it.

Clay then noticed that Moon's scribbling had stopped, and the Mudwing suddenly remembered that Moon had been hearing everything he had been thinking. And, by the way Moon had reacted, at least part of Clay's thoughts had been right. Moon must have heard this thought, too, because she tried to cover her pause by scribbling harder and more frantically on her scroll. However, when Clay looked up at Moon, it was obvious that the Nightwing was just pretending to write: her calligraphy was scratchy, she looked almost scared, and-

"STOP IT!" Moon yelled, slamming her writing utensil down and staring straight at Clay, fury in her eyes. Starflight turned his head, saw the aggression, yelled Moon's name, and quickly moved towards the younger Nightwing. Moon ignored him. Her voice lowered as she continued, but she compensated for that by leaning forward with an exceedingly intimidating aura, snarling, "Stop _reading_ me. Every thought you have does not have to be about _me_ , okay? And if you-"

"Moon!" Starflight cautioned, not yelling but not just speaking, either, as he made it to the smaller Nightwing's side. The scientist grabbed Moon's shoulder and turned her towards him, and Moon's anger faded almost immediately. Clay thought he saw that same guilt in Moon that he had seen when the mind-reader had snapped at him the day before.

Moon looked back at Clay, the Mudwing's heart racing a little from the outburst, and she lowered her head. "I'm sorry," she said, quietly. Then Moon looked up and addressed Starflight, saying, "I'm okay, now. I still have one series of questions left, and then I'll stop."

Starflight nodded, giving Moon a supportive clench on her shoulder before he let go and walked back to what he had been doing before. The younger Nightwing turned back to Clay, trying to remain calm. She breathed, and asked, "You met the Skywing champion, correct?"

"Yeah," Clay said, automatically, trying to forget about the outburst he had just witnessed. He had figured that a question of the sort would come sooner or later; he had just expected sooner, not later. Peril's scales were, from Clay's estimate, hotter than even the fire-breath of dragons. So Clay had figured that the Nightwings would want to know if he had come in contact with Peril and with her fiery scales.

"And you _could_ resist her firescales?" Moon asked, writing something down with an anxious claw, although not missing a beat and quickly regaining confidence.

"Yeah," Clay replied, although now his thoughts were spinning towards thinking about Peril, as a dragon, again. Now that he had gotten a perspective on love, albeit a hasty summary of what was clearly a longer strain of events, he was starting to wonder. He hadn't wanted to just leave Peril behind; he had felt sad when he had to leave her forever. So, had he been in love?

There were a couple more questions, some of them relating more to the danger Peril posed to the rainforest than anything having to do with Clay's scales - "How long do you think you could have remained in physical contact with her?" "Do you know if Scarlet is attempting use Peril as something other than her champion - as an assassin, perhaps?" "Do you believe Scarlet would _ever_ allow Peril to join the Skywing military?" - and then there was a pause. Moon finished her writing and didn't immediately follow up with anything. She rolled up her scroll, but she didn't leave to grab her necklace. Instead, she spoke again, asking, "Clay, how do you feel about Peril, really?"

Clay didn't know what to say. His first thought, actually, was, _What kind of a question was_ _ **that?**_ Why did Moon need to know what Clay thought about Peril? It didn't seem to pertain to his scales or to anything that the Nightwings might actually need to know _at all_. Clay tried to focus on his true feelings about Peril, a subject area he had more or less avoided, but he found that, still, he hardly knew what to say. Did that really matter? Clay figured there must be something revealing in his mind somewhere-

"No; your thoughts about her are confusing," Moon said, simply and slowly and almost with care, although Clay still wasn't the biggest advocate of the whole reading and responding to a dragon's thoughts thing she still had going on. "I mean, a good part of what I'm getting is 'Why does it matter? I can't ever see Peril again.' But as for the part that isn't thinking that, I'm getting a lot of contradictory thoughts. Part of you wants to figure out what love really is and then maybe choose Peril as a mate - a permanent mate, even - if you feel that love for her, and part of you wants to just be a normal Mudwing again and mate with whoever comes to you during a mating night. Then, one part of you is almost as loyal to her as you are to your siblings, but another part of you always, _always_ will prioritize your siblings. And then part of you, I think, sees her as nothing more than a friend, but another part is showing the inklings of something more: desire to stay together, to see her again, and to hold her and tell her that she's perfect no matter… wait, what about Obsidian?"

Moon craned her neck as thoughts about Obsidian began to fill Clay. That was right; Clay didn't know anything about the Nightwing, really, before the point when Obsidian had been brought to the Sky Kingdom and he had almost destroyed Peril. Now that Clay was really thinking about it, Obsidian's "banishment" was looking more and more condemning-

"Obsidian wasn't banished. He ran for his life." Moon said this, interrupting Clay's thoughts again, and then held Clay's gaze before she stated, "He was the dragon who destroyed the Rainwing Hatchery. The one who made the Eclipse, inadvertently. A Rainwing hid him because it was the right thing to do. He responded by murdering her tribe's children, including that Rainwing's own dragonet, wanting revenge for what Glory was doing with the Nightwings. He left the rainforest before Glory could catch up to him and kill him, and then he flew straight into a Skywing military congregation. He was captured and thrown into the arena once Scarlet realized that no Nightwing would be coming for him - and then he died at the claws of Scarlet's champion, although I've never heard that he did something like that to Peril..."

Clay, on his end of the conversation, took a moment to pause. So, Peril had fallen in love with not only an emotional manipulator, but a dragon who had massacred _dragonets_. And while Peril, from what Clay had heard and from what the Skywing champion had told him, hadn't been much better back then, it was still awful that a dragon like Obsidian had managed to just play her like she was-

"See, now you're feeling awful for her. I just can't figure out what you think about her."

Clay looked at the smaller Nightwing in front of him, his old thoughts ending, the Mudwing now wondering why Moon was so intent on figuring this out. Moon heard the thought and responded by just muttering, "It's just... I have a hard time with these things, and I guess I just want practice with figuring these hard topics out." Moon almost stopped here, but then she decided to elaborate: "I can read all the direct thoughts of a dragon, but I can't infer anything about anyone. When I get all these conflicting thoughts, I realize that even though I can _see_ everything, I can't _read_ anything. What dragons think, and what they'll do or how they truly feel about someone or something - those are two different things, and I have such a hard time figuring out what thoughts will translate into actions or what thoughts will make up a dragon's loyalties or just what thoughts dragons will act upon, and what thoughts are just... thoughts, I guess."

Clay looked at Moon for a couple more seconds; the Nightwing only fidgeted a little. Then Clay sighed, and replied, "But _I_ don't know what to think about her. And you're right: I can't go anywhere close to Peril ever again, so it doesn't matter." Well, Clay couldn't go close to Peril again without having his entire personality changed by Scarlet, apparently.

"What?" Moon asked, sharply, the smallest bit of fearful confusion in her voice; Starflight caught the unfamiliar emotion and looked up from a test he had been examining and at Moon. The mind-reader hadn't known about Clay's conversation with Scarlet? Sure, there had been other things on his mind during the interrogations, but he was pretty sure the conversation with the Skywing Queen was still in his mind somewhere. Maybe Moon's mind reading wasn't as powerful as Clay envisioned, but then, why had Moon taken her necklace off and possibly risked her sanity to interrogate Clay, when there should have been other Nightwings up to the task? Maybe mind-reading was a lot less common in the Nightwing tribe than what Clay had been told, and the Nightwings had to rely on dragons like Moon to do it. And now that Clay was thinking about it, there weren't a lot of prophecies floating around, either, so maybe there-

"Look, that's not important," Moon interrupted, Clay taking a moment to realize that she was talking about his thoughts. Starflight had walked over to Moon's side, curious, but only half paying attention, writing something at the same time. "Yes, I heard a lot of worries in your thoughts about Scarlet, but, well, part of you has almost _always_ been worrying about Scarlet, and most of those worries are pretty vague, anyways. I never caught anything like what you just thought a second ago. So, what did you mean, 'have your entire personality change?'"

Starflight suddenly directed every ounce of his attention at Clay. His eyes snapped open, and he watched Clay intently as the Mudwing explained about Scarlet's invasion of his dream. Everything: Scarlet's promise of making him powerful, her confidence that she could mold him into whatever she pleased, and her threat towards the rainforest. When Clay was finished, Starflight breathed a couple times before he stated, "This is bad. This is _really_ bad. For a multitude of reasons."

"I had my brother go to Beetle," Clay replied, knowing that the situation was bad "for a multitude of reasons," and not wanting Starflight to think that he had just done nothing when the terrifying queen had invaded his dream. Maybe sending his brother to Beetle had been the reason Clay had managed to keep his mind off Scarlet; maybe Clay trusted Reed and Beetle to get what needed to get done accomplished, and Clay had consequently decided to relax just the slightest bit. Clay tried to sum this sentiment up, saying, "And I'm sure that, if Beetle finds something worrying about our situation, she'll go to-"

"I'm quite certain that Beetle, or anyone that Beetle will tell your brother's story to, even the other brilliant dragons here, won't know the underlying implications of what's going on ," Starflight interrupted, no excitement within, just pure worry. "I mainly work with physical, kinetic things, but my dad did make sure to teach me about certain legends and animus-touched objects. Excluding the fact that Scarlet has access to a dreamvisitor - oh, Three Moons, this is really bad... - but, excluding that fact, it sounds like Scarlet has found a way to change your inner qualities with ease. Something like that would normally only be possible through the use of an animus, and it would take a good amount of that animus' sanity, _and_ it would take a huge amount of animus power. Even if Scarlet has an animus somewhere in the Sky Kingdom, which I doubt, she wouldn't have just casually changed you and your brother into something else - I feel like she'd instead be doing something much more destructive with that animus's limited sanity. But - Three Moons, I'm praying this isn't the case - but, according to _very_ obscure Nightwing legends, there could be a certain… artifact that she's using for the same deed, which has no sanity-based limit. I _sincerely_ hope this isn't the case, but I don't know what else could be going on here..."

Moon had jerked her head up at Starflight; her posture was contorted in the worry and confusion Clay was feeling. Wait, confusion? Why was Moon looking confused? Wasn't she a mind-reader? She didn't have her necklace on, and she had just been reading Clay's mind; shouldn't she know what Starflight was thinking? Or was Starflight blocking her, somehow? Starflight didn't give any clues towards or against any of Clay's theories; all he did was tap his talons on the floor before he mumbled, worriedly, "Oh, Three Moons, if that _is_ the case, I can only _pray_ that Scarlet doesn't know what that thing is capable of..."

Moon started, "Starflight, what are you-" Then the doors to the lab slammed open.

Jambu came striding through the now flung-open doors with urgency. His scales were still controlled, but Clay was sensing the smallest bit of worry, if not fear, emanating from the Rainwing. All three dragons already in the room turned to look at Jambu, who stopped in front of the group. The Rainwing commander spoke quickly, showing nothing but a whole load of urgency. "I need to talk with this Mudwing. _Now_."

Clay felt a jolt; Jambu's voice had been dire and almost worrisome. Clay started to wonder why - a Tears of the Rain attack, maybe? - and then a terrible thought hit the Mudwing. Clay didn't want to ask about the possibility, he didn't want to _think_ about the possibility, but he didn't have to; Starflight was doing those things for him. The Nightwing worriedly asked, his question likely based on the newfound facts he had heard from Clay, "Scarlet?"

"She's surrounded _every_ piece of land bordering the rainforest," Jambu stated, not seeming surprised at Starflight's guess. " _Everything_. That means the only way out of the rainforest is over the ocean and towards nothing. That means no travel to the Sky Kingdom. That means no travel to the Mud Kingdom - yes, Starflight, Scarlet even invaded Moorhen to close our borders. We haven't been invaded yet, but _nothing_ is going in or out of this place." Jambu took a second to stare straight into Clay's eyes. "The Skywings have put us under siege."


	36. Part 2: Chapter 16

**A/N: HOLY FREAKING SMOKES (and I know that this note isn't helping my situation any), this chapter is _LONG_. I'm not entirely sure how it even got this long, but _boy_ , is this chapter long. I think this one chapter is one of the longest things I've ever written, _ever_. ****I'm going to shut up now before I add even more longness to my long chapter. (Yes, that's literally all I had to say. Great Author's Note, huh?)**

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The Nightwing war room was the one thing Clay had seen in the Nightwing Kingdom that more or less matched up with his original picture of the Nightwings. It was a dark room with no windows, lit only by carefully placed torches—all in all, very dark and moody and Nightwing-y. Across from the doors from where Jambu had led Clay and Starflight in—Moon had trailed away at some point, probably knowing that she wouldn't be allowed into where the other dragons were going—there was a table where Deathbringer, Beetle, the rest of Clay's troop, and a few other Nightwings and Rainwings were waiting around. Also, directly past the table and across from the doors was a large map of Pyrrhia posted on the wall. A couple unfamiliar markings were drawn on it in various places, although the marks, from what Clay could see, were generally clustered in the rainforest. Jambu pushed Clay towards his troop and then strode over to Deathbringer, who was currently arguing, somewhat harshly, with Beetle.

"And you've known about this for _how long!?_ " Deathbringer asked, loudly, the Nightwing trying (not very successfully) to keep calm despite the obvious, uncharacteristic anger that was revealing itself in his posture. As Beetle fought up a retaliation, Clay ignored the bickering dragons and walked over to his siblings, all of whom were bunched together in a group. Clay quickly glanced over each and every one of them; his Bigwings instincts were demanding Clay to make sure every member of his troop was okay before he turned his focus to something else.

"Look," Beetle had responded, her voice more controlled than Deathbringer's but her posture betraying her irritation, "I was told, when I first showed you my dreamvisitor, that the rest of the things were lost. You _never_ elaborated on this, so I _assumed_ that this meant that they had been lost for a very long time. You _never_ told me you'd recently lost a dreamvisitor, you _never_ told me that you wanted to know where the rest of the dreamvisitors were, and you _never_ hinted that the fact that Blister has a dreamvisitor is almost _irrationally important information!_ "

"Blister!?" Clay shouted, turning his head away from his siblings and towards Beetle as the Sandwing Queen's name was uttered. Clay had enough enemies to worry about! Scarlet wanted Clay and Reed captured, almost to a disturbing degree, and for what purpose, Clay still couldn't guess. Glory had wanted something similar, although at least Glory had been quiet ever since Clay had gotten past her and into the walled village. And now if Blister, the calculating, heartless, and cruel Sandwing Queen, was involved, that meant _three_ power-crazed dragons were after Clay and his troop. At the point he was in, Clay wouldn't have been very surprised if Coral suddenly surrounded the rainforest to the south and starting trying to murder him as well.

"Yeah," Reed said, stepping up to Clay; Deathbringer and Beetle saw this action and decided not to halt their dispute, likely figuring that Reed could fill Clay in on whatever in Pyrrhia was going on while they continued to argue. "I went and talked with Beetle. She told me that there are only three dreamvisitors in Pyrrhia. One of them is in the possession of the Outclaws, another one is lost, apparently, and the last one, according to some defectors to the Outclaws, is, and has been for some time, in the possession of Blister."

"Which would have been _very helpful to have known earlier!_ " Deathbringer called from the middle of his quarrel with Beetle. Jambu took this moment to interject, and he attempted to quell both of the quarreling dragons with some well-placed, placating words. It was a moderately successful gesture; at the very least, it quieted the room just the slightest bit.

Reed didn't respond to Deathbringer's shout, instead continuing, "According to Beetle, there was a planned summit at the Sky Kingdom, where Coral, Blister, and Scarlet all got together to discuss who knows what. If everything went according to schedule, it should have started on the evening we had to stay at Eventide, and it would have ended last night. Beetle thinks that Blister let Scarlet borrow her dreamvisitor after the summit officially ended but before she returned to the Sand Kingdom, although why Blister would share power like that, and why _then_ —who knows?"

Starflight, who had been standing near Clay, had almost fallen over when he had heard Blister's name. Now, however, the Nightwing had recovered, and was glancing around nervously, like he was looking for some sort of opportunity. As Reed finished his speech and Deathbringer and Beetle ceased their argument—well, they ceased _yelling_ at each other—Starflight took the moment to step up. He asked, trying to maintain fortitude throughout his entire question, "So, we _are_ assuming that the dreamvisitor Scarlet used—and the one Blister possesses—is the one that was originally mine?"

"It has to be," Deathbringer said, turning to Starflight; Beetle didn't object, instead dropping her head in what looked like regret. "I'd be able to accept the possibility that Blister had managed to find the third dreamvisitor if the recent defectors from the Tears of the Rain could tell us where our old dreamvisitor actually _is_. But since every account we've gotten says that our dreamvisitor has appeared to have been removed from the rainforest, I'm starting to think the defectors knew more than they realized: Our dreamvisitor _isn't_ in the rainforest. It's looking like Glory gave Blister our old dreamvisitor, as well as the support of the Tears of the Rain, and Glory got, in return, the promise of allies that will one day 'return her to her rightful place as queen.' That, and a couple of Sandwing-built explosives and weapons every now and then, of course."

Starflight fell back, grimacing, returning to his worried state. Clay shot the Nightwing scientist a glance, attempting to ask Starflight about the dreamvisitor without saying a word. The Nightwing saw and responded in a murmur, leaning a bit towards Clay so his words wouldn't be so loud, "I used to roam around the Nightwings' old island a lot, especially when I was trying to think of weapon ideas. My dad would encourage it, saying that a good bit of exercise gets the brain pumping. I would fly around our kingdom, or I would walk around the half-destroyed forest on our island, or I would explore the ruins of the old parts of our castle, always looking for some sort of weapon-based inspiration. During this time, I kind of, uh, well, this sounds _really_ bad, but I saw and then dug a dreamvisitor out of someone's dead body."

Starflight shuddered like he had shuddered when he had recounted his near-death experience with his crossbow, at least suggesting that the Nightwing hadn't enjoyed the occurrence. After this, Starflight continued, "It was my secret treasure for a while; I managed to hide it from everyone and keep it to myself until after the eruption. I took it off the island, yes, but Fierceteeth eventually found out about it and took it from me, saying that it was the property of the Nightwings, not mine. Then Glory killed my sister and stole the dreamvisitor from our treasure room, and Glory took the thing with her when she was consequently ousted. We didn't know what Glory had done with it after that, especially since no one in the rainforest seemed to know where the thing went, but now it appears, especially since we've figured out that Glory has possession of explosives only regularly made in the desert, that she gave it away as part of a deal with Blister, likely an alliance of some sort."

"Which means that there's a good possibility that Glory's been giving away information about us for… Three Moons, she could have allied with Blister right after the rebellion..." a Nightwing Clay didn't recognize, who had been listening in on the conversation, added. She had trailed off, but now she regained her voice. "This trade doesn't only mean that Blister has allied with the Tears of the Rain and is therefore an undeniable enemy. It means that Blister knows we're weak. It means that Blister knows we can only squirm in her grasp. Blister _knows_ that she can destroy us whenever she wants to; we're living only on borrowed time."

Starflight nodded, and then started discussing something with this unfamiliar Nightwing in murmurs. Occasionally, one of the Nightwings would gesture to the map, but Clay couldn't catch any words, so he broke away from the conversation and turned back to his silent troop. Each Mudwing was looking fearful; a few of Clay's siblings had resorted to grasping another sibling's tail for comfort. Clay wanted to reassure them, but he didn't know what to say. He tried to think optimistically: Scarlet couldn't possibly just have a line of dragons around the rainforest; there _had_ to be breaks in this… siege?

This was a strange siege, Clay realized. Scarlet had surrounded what was literally one of the most plentiful habitats in the entire world. How exactly did she plan to strangle the Nightwings with her 'siege?' And why would she try to _strangle_ the Nightwings, when a few well-placed bolts of fire would burn her enemy's home around them, likely overwhelming the dragons she was attacking? If Scarlet wanted to, couldn't she just _destroy_ the Nightwings? Maybe, Clay thought as his chest lifted a little, Jambu had just been using dramatics in order to get Starflight and Clay's undivided attention. Maybe Scarlet was doing something else, something uncharacteristically less aggressive, by surrounding the rainforest—after all, hadn't the Nightwings bargained for immunity from Skywing attacks in return for the crossbow? Maybe the only thing Scarlet actually wanted was to keep dragons, maybe even just Clay's siblings, from exiting the rainforest. Of course, that wouldn't make Clay's situation much better, considering that, well, he and his siblings wanted to exit the rainforest.

At this point, Deathbringer and Beetle appeared to have apologized to each other under Jambu's eyes. They shook claws, nodded, and then Deathbringer turned to the map while Beetle moved over to Clay's troop, walking over towards Reed, who after his talk with Clay had almost huddled away from the map, as if he didn't want to believe what he was seeing. Beetle surprised Clay by sliding her tail towards Reed, giving Clay's brother extra support as Reed smiled and twined his tail around hers. Deathbringer looked at the map, sized it up, breathed a couple times while trying to think of what to say, and then turned back to the dragons in the war room and shouted, "Listen up!"

The hushed conversations floating around the room now sank, and Clay edged a bit forward with Sora, Beetle, and Reed, trying to view the map better. Clay could see the details of the chart now, and focused around the Nightwing Kingdom: Around the entire outer edge of the rainforest, except for the boundary towards the ocean, was a light orange shade, likely representing the Skywing force. The orange looked like it had hastily been shaded without a care for accuracy, which might have been comical if the dragon who had done it hadn't been _dead serious._ Along with this orange shade were purple shades, all drawn within the rainforest, along with a dark purple X, drawn in the middle of a large area of purple; Clay couldn't but think that this had something to do with the Tears of the Rain. There were also black marks, generally X's or circles, scattered throughout the rainforest, including a large, black box with a circle drawn around it, which Deathbringer quickly identified as the castle and the village for the uninformed Mudwings presented.

"Let's start with this," Deathbringer said, gesturing towards the orange shade surrounding the rainforest. "This—presumably—looks much worse than it actually is. Scarlet can't have dragons covering _everything_ around us. That being said, every report we've got has made it appear as if pretty much everything is at least being surveyed, hence the shade over the entire boundary. We don't know the specifics of Scarlet's strategy, or how she's divided her forces—Three Moons, we're not even entirely sure what Scarlet is _doing_ —but we're having our Rainwing patrol force watch them, and we'll try to figure some of this out. Now, these are only guesses made after very brief discussions, but we think that the highest concentration of Skywings will be between the rainforest and an area around Moorhen's palace, as well as in between here and Jade Mountain. On the other claw, the few places where we border the Sky Kingdom that _don't_ lead to Jade Mountain, as well as the easternmost parts of the rainforest, will be comparatively unguarded. If you'd be willing to take the risk, you might be able to sneak past the containment force where Scarlet has less Skywings. Then you could fly farther into the Sky Kingdom or around the rainforest near the ocean, depending on where you exited, before you turn and fly to either Jade Mountain and the Outclaws or back to Moorhen. At least, you _would_ be able to do that if there wasn't another issue present.

"Here's the problem: the Tears of the Rain. If Glory _has_ allied with Blister, that means Glory has allied, either indirectly or directly, with Scarlet. That's why Glory wanted you two, Clay and Reed—it has to be because she wanted to impress Scarlet. Anyway, my theory is that Glory will have her Tears spread out, covering Scarlet's holes, as best as her organization's size will allow—with a couple exceptions; I'll explain later—and they'll waiting for someone to leave the rainforest. If one of the Tears spots you, that Rainwing will run forward and tell Scarlet's forces, and Skywings will congregate around your area of exit and ambush you as you leave."

"But it's still a possibility?" asked Marsh. "Leaving the rainforest?"

Deathbringer paused, and then said, "We've got better ways for you to get out of here. But if worse comes to worse, then yes, you could try to sneak past all of the Tears of the Rain and all of Scarlet's troops and out of the rainforest, although with all the dragons out there, I wouldn't want to try."

"I have a question. Exactly how many dragons in the containment force—Skywings, I mean—are we dealing with here?" Clay thought the words had come from one of what could only be the Rainwing and Nightwing generals present before he realized their true origin: Sora, who had been looking at the map, back in the Sandwing War, helping to strategize again. Deathbringer looked at Clay's sister before he shook his head and shrugged, despairingly.

There was an uncomfortable pause where Deathbringer didn't continue, and then Beetle, rising up away from Reed, said, choosing her words carefully, "Deathbringer and I have talked, and we haven't been able to pinpoint anywhere _near_ a specific amount of dragons from the reports we've received. However, from what we've been able to estimate, this attack is _huge_. There could be anywhere from fifty to eighty-five percent of Scarlet's entire military surrounding the rainforest."

"Eighty-five percent," Reed repeated, his eyes going wide in shock as Beetle's statement rebounded across the room, his reaction mirroring a good number of the other dragons' reactions. Then Reed started laughing, incoherently, _not_ mirroring the other dragons' reactions and instead drawing worried stares from every dragon in the vicinity.

" _Eighty-five percent_ ," Reed repeated through his rambling chuckles. He looked at Clay with incredulous eyes, still laughing, and now officially freaking Clay out. Pheasant and Crane both stepped up to Reed, both likely wanting to help, but Reed didn't notice, nor did he notice when Beetle turned around to look at him with concern; Reed only took notice of Clay. Reed asked, almost deliriously, "She _really_ wants us dead, doesn't she, Clay? She wants _us_ dead, and she wants _our siblings_ dead, and she wants _our tribe_ dead, and she wants _the dragons who've helped us_ dead, and—No! No, she doesn't want _us_ dead, she wants us deader than dead, erased from ever existing, so dead that our souls are smashed into nothing, so dead that—"

"Reed!" Beetle barked, the sudden yelp scaring Clay. Her voice soothed a bit as Reed's laughing rant stopped, although Clay's brother didn't acknowledge Beetle past that. Beetle said, not necessarily without harshness but not in an _abrasive_ tone, "Look at me. This isn't about you-"

"Yes it is!" Reed shouted, turning his head towards Beetle. Despite his outburst, however, the second Reed seemed to realize that Beetle was talking to him, Clay's brother's temporary insanity faded. Reed flinched back as his brain processed what was in front of him, almost slumping over, looking like he had been slapped (which, honestly, Clay had been debating about doing in order to get his brother to calm down). Reed's voice also lost its irrationality and instead was filled with a miserable tone, which Clay figured was somewhat progressive, although not by very much. Reed's breaths turned heavy as he leaned towards Beetle, managing through the use of short phrases as the Mudwing tried to regain himself, "Yes it _is_ , Beetle… Scarlet _hates_ us… and she _does_ wants us dead… and… look, you've helped us _so_ _much…_ " At this point, Reed's voice cracked, but he was able to continue, "but maybe we should just… go to Scarlet… and let her kill us… and save everyone else…"

The whole room had gone silent. Reed was close to another breakdown, although this one would be marked by tears, not a surge of madness. Then Beetle did something completely unexpected: She moved closer to Reed and rubbed her head past his, stopping near his shoulder: a supportive and almost affectionate nuzzle, kind of like a hug. Reed started a bit as Beetle did this, but then he just lowered his head to Beetle's shoulders. Reed's breaths were still shaking, but Clay's brother was clearly feeling better from Beetle's support. "Why… _why_..." Reed stammered. Beetle held out one of her talons, and Reed took it, supporting himself further. Reed took a moment to regain himself before he was finally able to say, "I know. I'm not going to her, but... I just... Why does she hate us _so much_? What does she _want_ from us? Why won't she just leave us alone?"

"Reed," Beetle said, moving her head away from Reed's shoulder so Clay's brother could hear her better, "this _isn't_ about you. This offensive is too big—it was clearly conceived long before your siblings were ever taken by Scarlet. Three Moons, Scarlet doesn't even know you're here, remember? So calm down; this isn't about you _or_ your siblings. This whole separating you and your siblings thing—for Scarlet, that's just a bonus."

"Yes, let's talk about that," Deathbringer said, directing Clay's attention away from his brother and back to the map. The Nightwing commander had just been observing Reed and Beetle, who had now separated from their embrace, although their tails were intertwined again. Deathbringer now broke his gaze, looked around, tried to find the right words, and then said, "This is a huge, almost insane offensive against the Nightwings. There's _no way_ something this big was launched just to keep Clay's siblings away from their eldest brothers. There's just one major issue: As an actual attack, this makes no sense.

"As a siege, it's not only pointless—we live in a rainforest, by all the moons—but it's also too widespread for Scarlet to effectively support for, well, the time it would take for a siege to be beneficial. If it's an offensive, Scarlet isn't actually attacking us—once again, making her actions pointless. And if this is only a containment, not only do we run into the same support problems, but I also ask: What in Pyrrhia is Scarlet trying to contain? _We_ hardly leave the rainforest; we contain _ourselves_. I suppose that one could argue, like Reed, that Scarlet has simply gone insane and _really_ doesn't want to let Clay and Reed get their siblings back. But I don't care how rash or sadistic or evil or just how plain crazy Scarlet is, that queen isn't _stupid._ Invading Moorhen's territory _right next to Moorhen's own palace_ —declaring war with the Mudwings, more or less—and then placing what appears to be the majority of her army not only away from her own palace, but in a position where those Skywings will be _unable to protect their queen in the event of a Mudwing attack,_ especially if Moorhen has her northern force go on the offensive—basically, leaving herself _and_ her control center wide open to a counterattack from the Mudwings—I don't care what anyone says, that _isn't_ Scarlet. Something else _has_ to be up."

Clay almost didn't catch the words; he was too busy focusing on the ones about Scarlet. But then the Mudwing's mind rewound, and he heard the words echoing: declaring war. The declaration of war between the Mudwings and the Skywings—the event Clay had hoped would never happen.

Scarlet had invaded Moorhen. The Skywings and the Mudwings _had_ to go to war, and Clay hadn't been able to do anything about it. Clay hadn't failed his siblings, but he _had_ failed his tribe. Clay tried to make himself feel better, tried to tell himself that even if everything had gone perfectly, then it still wouldn't matter; Scarlet would still have attacked his tribe one day. It didn't help very much.

"I still can't help but think that this is only an absolutely insane distraction of _some sort_ ," Beetle suddenly said, uncurling her tail from Reed's and walking up towards the map.

"If so, it's a pretty big distraction," a sky-blue Rainwing—likely controlling his scales—replied. Clay turned his eyes to the dragon and immediately noticed two things about him: A bracelet on that dragon's arm with another black, shiny stone in it—did that mean he was another council member, maybe?—and a visible scar near his throat, which only caught Clay's attention because it didn't really look like a battle wound; it looked like someone had cut into him in a controlled manner, perhaps as some form of surgery.

Beetle glanced at the Rainwing but didn't say anything to him, walking to the front of the room to join Deathbringer. She then turned her head towards the congregation of dragons, and continued, "I don't know what else it could be. This offensive is unsustainable, almost idiotic, and seems more compulsive than anything— _seems_. But this was launched right after Blister, Scarlet, and Coral discussed things—war plans, perhaps?—with each other for days. Blister and Coral _are_ part of this attack. I can't help but think that, somehow, this is all directed at Moorhen. Once Moorhen focuses on trying to get Scarlet out of her kingdom, Coral is going to spearhead her from the north, and I suppose after Coral is engaged with Moorhen, Blister might attack from the west, or _something_..."

"If this a distraction directed at Moorhen," one of the Nightwing generals objected, "why has Scarlet bothered to dispatch troops against us in her own territory? Wouldn't it make more sense for Scarlet to concentrate all her efforts around Moorhen, not spread them out so that Skywing troops are covering their own kingdom? No, the pattern of Scarlet's troops gives a clear message: The Skywings are attacking _us_."

"No, it's not a distraction," Jambu suddenly said from near the doors, where he had moved to as Deathbringer and the others had talked, his scales hinting at the smallest bit of dull yellow, as if he had just been hit with an epiphany. "This is a blockade between us and Moorhen."

Clay found that this statement was fairly obvious, but Jambu continued to explain, stepping closer to the table, "Blister wants Moorhen destroyed. If Blister is allied with Glory, then the Sandwing Queen wants us destroyed, too. If the Mudwings and the Nightwings— _and_ the majority of the Rainwings—were to ally with each other, that could drop a tree onto Blister's plans. Therefore, it's likely that Blister ordered Scarlet to do this because she doesn't want us to ally with each other.

"Blister likely wants to get rid of one of us so she can focus on the other, and she expects that defeat to be quick, or she wouldn't have, basically, ordered Scarlet to launch something so big that it keeps her out of what is quickly going to become a massive war. Now, Moorhen may not be able to win this war, but she'll be able to fight Blister's coalition for quite some time. But what about us? What if Coral _does_ attack Moorhen from the north in order to cover Scarlet's weakness, but what if _that_ is Moorhen's distraction, meant to keep the Mudwings from helping _us_? And what if _Blister_ attacks us? The two tribes Blister wants gone can't support each other, because Scarlet is preventing travel between the two kingdoms. And if Glory _has_ been leaking Blister information, then Blister knows that we won't be able to defend against a large Sandwing force for long. Blister knows that we'll get destroyed without much resistance, and she had Scarlet use such an impractical long-term maneuver for this reason only—because Blister knows that Scarlet only has to hold this huge blockade for a number of _days_."

There was a moment of tense silence as Jambu finished and let his frightening words reverberate. Eventually, Umber spoke up, saying, "So, basically, Scarlet isolates Blister's enemies from each other. Coral attacks Moorhen to distract her. Blister attacks the Nightwings and either forces them into submission or decimates them quickly. Then Scarlet's troops will be free to leave their position surrounding the rainforest, and... then…?" Even though it was phrased as a question, Clay was pretty sure Umber already knew the answer.

"Glory—placed back in control of what's left of the rainforest as the new Rainwing Queen—will join Blister and Scarlet against Moorhen," Sora stated, understanding the plan and giving her interpretation of it. "They don't have to worry about the Nightwings or the Rainwings intervening anymore, so all three of them are free to group together and join Coral against our queen. Moorhen will get overwhelmed. Moorhen will be forced to surrender. Moorhen will be executed, publicly and humiliatingly. Blister then replaces the true Mudwing royal family with dragons she can manipulate. And then, Blister and her coalition will rule Pyrrhia."

There was silence as the weight of everything hit the dragons present. Then Marsh, likely trying to shine _some_ light on the situation, asked, "What about Glacier?"

"I have no idea what is going on with Glacier," Beetle replied from up front. " _She_ won't support this offensive. I mean, Glacier won't care about what happens to the Nightwings, but she won't just let Blister destroy the entire Mudwing tribe without doing _something_. Maybe Blister just gave up trying to control Glacier, and is content to just let the Icewings live how they want, as long as they stay up north and away from Blister. Or maybe Glacier has agreed to turn a blind eye to what Blister is doing in return for immunity from whatever Blister decides to do next. But I think those are unlikely possibilities—I really want to think that Blister has something planned that will force the Icewings to her side."

Clay found himself a bit frightened after he heard this remark. What could Blister even do to the Icewings? They lived too far away from any other tribe and too far north to even be touched. If Blister could control the Icewings, couldn't she control anything?

Jambu, who hadn't ever stepped down from where he had moved to speak, let the few new conversations fueled by these new topics end, and then he continued, "Blister _will_ attack us through our desert tunnel. She won't fly over the rainforest to us for the same reason Scarlet didn't just rush in and kill us: Because they _know_ we have a highly-trained and exceedingly deadly Rainwing and Nightwing force that can be mobilized against them, and Blister rightfully believes that an attack through the tunnel will minimize the damage that force can do. If I had to guess, the attack is coming soon, maybe later today. All Blister has to do is amass her forces, and then she'll strike."

The dragon who Starflight had been talking with earlier now demanded Jambu's attention, and then other worried conversations sparked up, and as dragons talked, Beetle turned back to the map and stared at it for a bit. Then Beetle mumbled, "That's not right." Dragons turned their eyes to her as they caught the words; Beetle turned back to them, slowly, and in thought. "This doesn't make _sense_ , but the attack _can't_ come today." All other words disappeared as the dragons in the war room stared at Beetle, likely wishing for the hybrid to give them some hope to hold on to.

"Look, if Blister was smart—which she is—then she would have attacked you almost at the same time that Scarlet surrounded the rainforest," Beetle said, louder now. "It would have been completely unexpected, and you wouldn't have had time to defend against it. But Scarlet dreamvisited these Mudwings early in the morning, which means Blister likely didn't get her dreamvisitor back until some time around dawn, which means she didn't leave the Sky Kingdom until after the sun came up, which means Blister probably isn't even _in_ the Sand Kingdom yet. I doubt that Blister will launch this major of an attack without being present at her own kingdom—Three Moons, this might even mean that Blister hasn't even _prepared_ troops for her attack yet—and that means that we have time. But I have no idea why Blister would let her attack be delayed like this—it almost choreographs her next move, and that's not Blister."

"If I had to guess," Starflight said, not unlike he had spoken at dinner the previous night, "Blister did not expect us to figure out the intricacy of this offensive—it's very possible she didn't even expect us to figure out her involvement with Scarlet's actions. How would we, the dragons that never leave our rainforest, ever figure anything out? As it stands, we only know as much as we do because one of the most knowledgeable Outclaws in the entire organization happened to be visiting—in a place that hardly ever has visitors. Without Beetle, we might have _suspected_ Blister's involvement with Scarlet's actions, but we couldn't have concretely known that Blister was allied with Glory, we couldn't have known that Blister had been at a summit planning the final details of our demise with all of her allies, and we couldn't have known that Scarlet's actions were just foreshadowing a dual offensive against us and Moorhen until Blister came in and killed us all. Also, we have to remember that Scarlet has a love of theatrics. The idea of squeezing the 'superior' Nightwings, choking them, watching them flail and try to save themselves without an idea of what is truly going to happen to them—that might have been too 'thrilling' of an opportunity for Scarlet to pass up."

Jambu nodded, showing agreement with Starflight's theory, and continued with, "So, we believe that there will be an offensive from Blister, but that it will not be immediate. It still seems strange that the attacks appear to be layered like this, but at this point, I say we don't worry about it and instead try to work with it. I still doubt that there will be much of a delay; it could easily take less than a day for Blister to gather the forces she needs in order to destroy our tribes. However, if Beetle is correct, then we have, at the very least, about a day before Blister floods in here and destroys us. So, in other words, it is quite possible that we only have tonight to set up a defense against Blister. We have to act immediately."

"Yes, so we're going to destroy the desert tunnel," Deathbringer ordered, nodding to show his agreement with Jambu but otherwise taking command. "We cut off Blister's direct attack route; we stall. Then we make some changes to our foreign policies."

Deathbringer suddenly lifted himself up, as if some fire had struck him. His voice, which had never been weak, was empowered, becoming as authoritative as any queen's. His posture, which hadn't ever been slumped before, straightened itself into the posture of a true leader, a king, a queen. In that moment, Clay understood why Deathbringer was "the most influential dragon in the Nightwing Kingdom," why Deathbringer "was practically the king." Because even before any words left his mouth, it was clear that the Nightwing's orders would be followed. Deathbringer declared, "We are not only going to ally with Moorhen, but we are also going to ally with the Outclaws. The dragons threatened by Blister must band together, or we will all be destroyed. And in order to procure these alliances, we are going to stop hiding."

Deathbringer started walking, a controlled stride, not nervous pacing. His power didn't fade at all with the movement, instead, it seemed to grow from the action. "We've known for months that Moorhen was in danger, that Blister has been slowly bringing her claws around her throat. And what did we do?" Deathbringer stopped here, turning towards the dragons present from the side of the room to the right of the doors. "We did nothing."

"We did not try to help Moorhen, even when we knew both her tribe and ours were threatened by the same menace. We did not try to stand up for the Mudwings when Scarlet was abusing them; we didn't try to do _any_ good, and perhaps make ourselves look unlike the monsters we've been in the past while doing so. No, we hid from Pyrrhia. We focused on our own problems, and by doing that, by trying to remain like the mysterious Nightwings or the hidden Rainwings of old, we have doomed ourselves. We wanted to believe that we only _had_ to focus on our own problems; we wanted to think that Glory was our only enemy—we wanted to think that we had already won peace. We didn't want to see the whole picture. We didn't want to see that we _needed_ allies, that we couldn't live isolated from the other tribes forever. We didn't want to realize that Glory could maybe be doing the things we weren't, that Glory was preparing for something beyond a conflict in the rainforest, that Glory was slowly exposing us more and more until we had lost our biggest defense of secrecy."

Deathbringer started moving again, striding to the other side of the room now. "But feeling sorry for ourselves, muttering how stupid we've been, locking ourselves away in shame—that isn't going to help. That's what Glory _wants,_ that's what Scarlet wants, and that's what Blister wants." Deathbringer paused and stared at one of the side walls, having made it to the other side of the room, and then he turned around with newfound passion. "They _want_ us to lay down! They _want_ us to surrender! They _want_ us to let them come here unopposed, so that they can _burn_ the home we've worked so hard to make, so that they can _massacre_ our friends and our mates and our families, and so that they can _control_ the dragons that will survive like a second coming of Fierceteeth! Well, listen to me! We are _not_ going to give them what they want!"

The Commander of the Nightwing Armies made his way to the map again, walking with an air that said he wasn't finished. Beetle had sat down during Deathbringer's speech, so now the Nightwing stood alone. He made to the map, then turned towards the dragons in the room, and stated, calmly, but growing more impassioned with each word, "Now is the time to change. We are going to give up our secrecy, we are going to join together with the other dragons in Pyrrhia, and we are going to fight. I do not _care_ if I die, if I die fighting. _No one_ should care if they die, if they die fighting! If we don't fight, we'll die anyways, so why not fight and take a few of them with us!? Why not show them that we're _not_ worthless!? Why not _show them_ (Deathbringer, now fervent in his speech, gestured back and forth as he listed qualities that were known to pertain to both the tribes present—qualities for the Nightwings elicited a point to the left, for the Rainwings, to the right) that we're not evil, that we're not lazy, that we're not heartless, that we're not idiotic, that we're not murderers, that we're not ignorant fools, that we fight not simply to kill others, but to protect the dragons we love like any other tribe!? Why not show them that we are not dragons that deserve to be driven extinct, that we're not demons crawled out from hell or that we're more than dumb beasts!? Why not show them that _we are Nightwings!?_ That _we are Rainwings!?_ Why not show them that our tribes _**can** work together!?_ And why not show them that this coalition, this alliance, this _union_ of Rainwings and Nightwings will not be _eradicated from Pyrrhia_ _**without a fight!?**_ "

Nothing, _nothing_ , nothing but sentiments of zealous agreement filled Clay's ears.

"Carambola!" Deathbringer said, turning to the Rainwing who had spoken before; the dragon, who was now smiling with fresh will in his eyes, his scales turning red-orange with new determination, snapped to attention. "Not only do you know the rainforest better than anyone else, but you know the Tears of the Rain, and you'll know how to get around them. Get out of here and get to Moorhen. I'd say go east, unless you want to risk flying past the Skywings. Once you get to Moorhen, beg for an alliance with her. Tell her everything. I honestly don't care what you do, but _make that alliance._ "

Carambola nodded, asked something about weapons and a scroll proving his authenticity, then strode out of the room when Deathbringer responded. Deathbringer turned towards Beetle, but the hybrid was ready. "I'll talk with my mom," Beetle said before being asked anything. "If you can stop Blister from attacking you using that tunnel, we can probably get Outclaw forces to make it _very difficult_ for Blister to ever get a major strike to the rainforest. Scarlet and Coral will be a problem, but we'll try and figure out how to deal with them."

Deathbringer nodded, then turned to Starflight. "I need explosives," Deathbringer ordered. "And firebombs, now that I think about it." Starflight nodded, but he didn't leave. He motioned that he needed talk with the commanding Nightwing, but Deathbringer held up his claw, telling him to wait.

Deathbringer now pointed towards a black X not far from the symbol for the Nightwing palace on the map and called the Mudwings to attention. "This is our desert tunnel," he said, addressing the Mudwings. "It's an animus-made portal that'll take you to the Sand Kingdom, initially made in order to help us communicate and work with Burn." Clay's mind had a jolt; the Nightwings _did_ have an animus, which meant there _were_ animus dragons in Pyrrhia.

"We're going to block it tonight, and it won't be easy for anyone to remove that blockade for a _very_ _long_ time, so your only chance to go through it is tonight, during our attack against it," Deathbringer said, removing his claw from the map and staring Clay in the eyes. "Now let me tell you something, Mudwings. I said that the Tears of the Rain would be spread out, with a couple of exceptions. This is _the_ main exception. The Tears of the Rain, perhaps Glory herself, _will_ be waiting for us there. They know about the tunnel, and Blister has probably ordered Glory to protect it until she's ready to come destroy us. But that's a mistake. We can't fight off an army from Blister or Scarlet, but we _can_ fight off the Tears of the Rain. And I doubt Blister or Glory even realize that the tunnel _can_ be blocked the way we're going to do things, which means we have just the slightest hope of this attack working." Deathbringer then mumbled, under his breath, "And maybe, if Glory _is_ there, I'll get the chance to finish her this time."

Dragons, mainly Mudwings, nodded. Clay didn't fancy rushing past Glory again, but it seemed better than rushing past Scarlet. Beetle, however, seemed to be just the slightest bit unnerved. "When are we doing this?" she asked, a bit worriedly. "Because I'll have to get an Outclaw force to hold the other side, and I won't be able to organize that until dragons have fallen asleep."

"Midnight, I think," Deathbringer replied. "It'll be symbolic—it's both the middle of the night and the start of the day." Deathbringer suddenly showed the smallest hint of jealousy as he said, "But that shouldn't matter, should it? I'm sure you'll get the best security the Outclaws can offer to protect these Mudwings, which means you'll get _him_ to hold the tunnel on your end. And _he'll_ be asleep at noon, just like he always is."

"Oh, Three Moons, are you still sore about that?" Beetle asked, her worry suddenly disappearing into amusement. "Deathbringer, no matter what you call yourself, you're basically a king now! I'm _pretty sure_ that trumps anything Mangrove's ever done."

"I never killed _Blister_ ," was all Deathbringer replied with, not necessarily with envy or dry anger, and instead with an almost joking nature. "And I don't care what you say, I did _not_ win our fight. Mangrove managed to get away from me, even if he had to play dead, and I don't consider that a win…"

"Oh, _Three Moons_ , Deathbringer," Beetle said, looking exasperated, "let the whole rivalry with Mangrove _go_. You're not an assassin anymore, he's not really an assassin anymore, and both of you are on the same side nowadays. You two don't even dislike each other; I _saw_ you talking and laughing with him when you came to the Scorpion Den. Just forget about the whole 'who's a better assassin?' thing that you have going on with him, and you two could become, like, the deadliest duo in Pyrrhia."

"Whatever," Deathbringer replied, obviously not letting the whole rivalry with Mangrove go.

Jambu came over around now, nodding towards Deathbringer. The Nightwing nodded back, leaving the Mudwings to go talk with Starflight, asking, somewhat humorously, if someone had written down part of his speech, because "honestly, that was some good stuff coming out of my mouth" (apparently, one of the Nightwings _had_ ). Jambu sized up the Mudwing troop, then said, "Okay, I'm going to give you all a brief rundown on rainforest fighting techniques: Rainwing detection, maybe some tree gliding lessons, probably some crossbow-firing lessons, stuff like that. You _have_ to be ready for tonight, because you're walking straight into a war."


	37. Part 2: Chapter 17

**A/N: You know what took a long time to get up? This chapter. Like, I don't even _know_. **

**Once upon a time, this was originally one with the _next_ chapter. You would have had chapter 17 and it would have been an 8000 (or more) word chapter. Thing is, a) there was a pretty obvious break in the chapter and b) I like keeping a semi-consistent update schedule and the _freaking second part_ of the big chapter is taking an insane amount of time for me to get anywhere close to right. And that is my story of why it took me a week to get this chapter out: Because I was working on the _entirety_ of the big chapter and not just this part. I'm still not sure I completely like this chapter, but at this point I don't really care. Anyway, stay tuned! I will probably (that means _maybe_ ) get the next chapter up before next Sunday!  
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Clay was worried about a lot of things. Clay was worried that he wouldn't come out of the imminent battle with the Tears of the Rain alive. He kept picturing his siblings, some trying to stay strong, some not caring about their emotions and letting tears overtake them, as they crowded around his limp, cold, and dead body. Or Clay was worried that, when he would open his eyes the next day, only five, or four, or three, or an even smaller and even more unthinkable number of siblings would be next to him. Clay was worried that he'd march his troop into battle, and that no one would come out alive. And Clay was worried that he might be the only dragon left breathing at the end of the night, that he'd be the dragon crying alone, the one who would be forced to live in loneliness, his failure overbearing and crushing, for the rest of his pitiful life.

Which was worse, truly? Dying, and leaving the dragons he loved behind without the brother they'd followed for years, or living, and having to force himself to breathe when there was no one around, no Reed, no Sora, no Marsh or Crane or Pheasant or Umber, no dragon left to breathe for?

But then Clay's worries had been burned away, temporarily, at least, through the smallest miracle—the miracle of simple life. Because after the Mudwings left the war room to go through Jambu's quick training, after they left Beetle so that she could get ready to dreamvisit Mangrove (just another one of the deadliest dragons in Pyrrhia that Clay was going to slide right up to and make casual conversation with), after they made it to the entrance of the palace, and when Jambu had opened the doors to the castle, the sunbeam of life in the Rainwing–Nightwing village had absolutely blinded Clay. The structure of it, the community of it, the _everything_ of it had overwhelmed Clay's entire mind, and it took the Mudwing time to adjust.

The physical structure of the village had taken most of Clay's attention, at least at first. The village was laid out how Clay had observed earlier: large palace in the middle, village spread out evenly from the center until it reached the wall. The village was a bit bigger than Clay had thought when he had looked at it from the infirmary—the hospital had been relatively elevated, so the town it overlooked had appeared smaller than it actually was. The village still wasn't anywhere close to being huge, and it still wouldn't hold against Blister's army, but it did, at least, look like a force that, if completely mobilized, could have a chance at staying on Pyrrhia, of fighting off the Tears of the Rain, of maybe doing something in this new, horrible war Clay was being thrust into.

Clay continued to take in the village as he looked up, seeing the fairly lush, yet also fairly translucent canopy that hung over the village. Wait… lush canopy? Something Clay had noticed during his original view of the village that he was starting to notice again made this fact seem impossible: The whole area that the village took up was relatively clear from trees or other vegetation, instead having homes shoved in almost every amount of free space. Where did this canopy come from? Clay looked around, searching for the huge trunks of trees that could make up this canopy, but he couldn't see anything within the village that would logically lead to the overhanging cover.

Jambu was leading Clay's troop towards some training grounds, although Clay didn't see anywhere close to clear enough to train at near his current location. The Commander of the Rainwing Armies walked slowly, as if, like Clay, he was taking in the life around him, and as if he was just now realizing what could be lost if Blister couldn't be defended against. Occasionally, Jambu would glance back at Clay's troop, making sure no one was getting left behind, sometimes asking about Clay's still uncovered venom wound and if it was causing any major irritation (which it really wasn't). At one point, he must have seen Clay's puzzled eyes looking up at the canopy. "Confused about the tree cover?" Jambu had asked, looking forward again but talking louder so Clay could hear.

"They're dragonbarks," the Rainwing explained, gesturing the slightest bit upwards. "If you had to use the tree bridge at Eventide, you'll know about them. Their branches manage to spread over the village even though their trunks are situated beyond the wall. And these trees are tough, so it's practically guaranteed that our tree cover isn't going anywhere."

One problem solved, Clay took some time to look around the village proper. Clay and his group passed a few small farms, all with generally unfamiliar animals contained within small, fenced areas, and a lot of homes. Some homes, generally ones made of stone, were relatively well-built, and some even looked stunning, but others looked like they had been thrown together hastily, in what had probably been a span of days. Now that Clay was closer to the ground, he was seeing smaller huts—half made of wood, half made of mud—that had hid themselves from view during his quick downwards glance from the infirmary. The half-mud and hastily built huts mixed in with the much more complex stone ones, although there were generally more less-well-built homes than well-built ones. At times, the half-mud huts would become the predominant abodes and the stone huts would disappear, making the walk through the Rainwing–Nightwing village almost like being in a hotter, shadier, and much more crowded version of home.

A very, very much more crowded version of home. The pathways through the village were small, and since dragons seemed to always be on them, everything was cramped. It wasn't like dragons weren't ever in their homes, though. Clay once saw a door open on a larger stone hut and saw what looked like multiple dragons—multiple _families_ of dragons—inside. "They told us, when we first came here, that their village is really congested," Pheasant said, seeing Clay's stares. "Apparently, they keep dragons everywhere—the castle, the old huts built under the Nightwings' original queen, the new huts they built after the rebellion. I think I heard that some dragons even live at the wall."

"That's right," replied Jambu from ahead, taking the duty of explanation away from Pheasant. "The main problem with this village, actually, is that we lack the space we need to really grow. Glory won't ever take this fortress—not on her own, at least—but she knows her guerrilla warfare. If we move outside the wall, she'll find some way to kill us. We're fine for now, I suppose, but the eggs laid from all these reconstruction policies are going to start hatching one day, and that'll _force_ us to spread out, no matter what the risk."

There was then _more_ walking away from the castle and through the village. Jambu continued to lead, Clay continued to follow directly behind, then Sora and Pheasant did the same, then Reed and Crane, then Marsh and Umber—the pairs Clay's troop were in being specifically designed during the troop's days in the Sandwing War so that a better fighter would be with one of the troop's weaker ones if something went wrong. The village didn't get less dense as Clay kept walking, always away from the castle and towards the huge wall of stone surrounding the village.

"Are we going _outside_ the wall?" Umber asked when the the group was about halfway to the massive stone structure, to which Jambu nodded.

"Not very far," the Rainwing continued. "Not even a quarter of a mile away. The Tears of the Rain won't dare come that close to the village—not anymore. That is, unless they have a suicidal desire to get shot down by the dragons that'll be covering us. Plus, we've already established that Glory is just waiting for Blister to come in and kill us, so she's not going to do anything idiotic like a frontal assault on our wall today."

Clay took this moment to actually, for once, look at the wall. The sparsity of foliage in the village had almost made Clay feel like the wall was pointless, and that dragons could just fly over it without issue and then drop into the village within. As it stood, however, the space directly above the wall had the same issue as the area over the river: branches everywhere, possibly the immovable dragonbark ones, giving only a small area of clearance. Dragons probably still could fly over the wall, just not very well, which meant that any dragons trying to fly in the space between the branches and the wall wouldn't have time to maneuver away from a crossbow bolt coming from the dragons at the wall. Basically, Clay realized, the entire village was situated in a large dome of empty space, a bubble of nothing in the middle of the luxuriant rainforest, that was protected by the expanse of dragonbarks. But wouldn't the branches above provide a route of attack for the tree-soaring Tears of the Rain? Or, a possibility Clay found very likely, did Deathbringer and Jambu have Rainwings situated in the branches both near the wall and overhead in the canopy to fend off these sorts of assaults? That made sense, even though, if it was true, it meant that Rainwings were above watching _everything_ , which was only mildly creepy.

With the first half the journey towards the wall complete and most of the physical structure of the village examined, the _life_ of the village was starting to seep into Clay. Scene after scene of the village pelted him. Every scene was just a scene of what was only life, the life of dragons who were ignorant of the threat to their homes and their lives that was lurking just a few hours away, as Deathbringer hadn't addressed the general populace about the Skywing and Sandwing threat yet: Rainwings basking in sun, their wings spread out, their faces smiling and happy as they rested, generally, on top of the homes in the village. A small group of Rainwings flying in the limited space overhead the village, one of them laughing as they all made it to the the tree cover above and disappeared into it. A Nightwing examining a group of unfamiliar, colorful plants and writing something about them on a scroll. A whole team of Rainwings working on making a garden on top of one of the huts, one that was filled with exotic flowers and which could only be described as cute. A somewhat older Nightwing being half-jokingly pressured, by a rather hyperactive young Rainwing, into spreading his wings out and basking in the sun that came through the leaves above, as if _he_ was a Rainwing.

It wasn't like everything was joyful, or that the equality the village strove for had erased all conflicts. Clay saw a group of Rainwings give a nearby Nightwing angry glares, whispering furiously to each other the entire time, giving the black-scaled dragon the clear message of, "Leave us alone, and don't you _dare_ come near us." He saw a small Rainwing get rather violently shoved over by a passing Nightwing, only because the tropical dragon had been slightly in the Nightwing's way. And Clay once heard a shout, and when the Mudwing turned his head, a Rainwing was howling words—words Clay hadn't even been aware Rainwings _knew_ —at a Nightwing, who was backing away from the aggressive Rainwing, looking both furious and guilty at the same time.

And yet, for every act of hate, there was almost always an act of friendship but yards away. The Rainwing who had been pushed over getting helped up by both another Nightwing, who shot the dragon who had pushed the younger Rainwing over an angry glare as she did, as well as an older Rainwing. The Nightwing who had been hostilely excluded from the earlier group of Rainwings getting a supportive nudge from another nearby Nightwing, and both of them suddenly breaking out into laughter after something clearly hilarious was said. A group of Rainwings calming the yelling Rainwing down, although demanding what looked like an apology from the Nightwing across from her, which the Nightwing appeared to reluctantly give. The other Nightwing from earlier finally, with a somewhat irritated sigh and roll of his eyes, obliging to the Rainwing next to him, spreading his wings and letting the sun soak into his black scales, emitting a squeal of happiness from the Rainwing present. A Nightwing talking to a Rainwing, almost with childlike excitement, about an idea for a new scroll, and the Rainwing almost slamming into him with his enthusiasm and his support for the proposition. Three dragonets—two Rainwings and a Nightwing, all not very young, closer to adults rather than dragonets, really, but dragonets nonetheless—running through one of the scarce and small open areas, playing tag as best as the space allowed, the Nightwing running and hooting and laughing without a care for his stereotypical tribal dignity.

Jambu suddenly had to stop, because a Rainwing in front of the group lost hold of and then spilled an armful of coconuts in their path. Dragons came over to help the Rainwing pick his coconuts back up, which further blocked the group's path, so Jambu just stepped back and waited, signaling for Clay's troop to do the same. Clay's troop broke out of line and huddled together, waiting for the small blockade in front of them to clear. It seemed a bit strange that dragons didn't give who Clay was sure was one of the most important dragons in the rainforest clearance, but Jambu didn't really seem to care, and he wasn't really _asking_ for clearance, directly or indirectly, anyways.

In fact, the Rainwings here seemed to be more noticing of Clay's troop than of their Commander of the Rainwing Armies. Clay had seen the Rainwings around giving him or one of his siblings interested looks, and a few he had passed had even stopped walking and craned his or her neck to get a better look. None of the Nightwings did it, and some, even most Rainwings seemed content to just let Clay and his troop pass without issue, but there _were_ a decent amount of dragons who would look at Clay like he was a completely amazing and unbelievable phenomenon. Now that Clay's troop was paused, they were actually starting to draw a small crowd of curious-looking Rainwings. Clay had turned completely around to view a Rainwing, who was staring, awe-struck, at Pheasant (what exactly was so _fascinating_ about his sister?), when Jambu stepped up. "Excuse me," he said, gently but with authority that hadn't been present in the walk before, "it is _not polite to stare_."

The Rainwing who had been looking at Pheasant jumped, turned his scales a purple-pink, and rushed off. There was then a general exodus of Rainwings as Jambu took on a new power and silently demanded clearance of their path. With no more lost coconuts in the road, it cleared quickly. As they started walking again, Jambu explained, as if apologizing, "Most Rainwings here have never seen a dragon that isn't a Nightwing or a Rainwing. Your presence wouldn't have caused anything like this before the Nightwings came, but after they invaded and Rainwings were taken out of the sun and started _caring_ about things, knowledge became a bigger interest among our tribe—a bout of unintended good the Nightwings did us. Some Rainwings still don't care about learning, but the ones that _do_ can be a bit excitable when it comes to new things. You're a new thing—we've never had a troop of Mudwings here before, as far as I know—so you're attracting attention. It's not a new phenomenon; Beetle had the same thing happen to her when she first came."

At this point, Clay was starting to get used to all this life around him, all the general equality and the overall contentedness. The blinding light had faded, and now Clay was able to simply walk closer and closer to the wall, no longer overwhelmed. Then the group reached the wall, and Jambu flew to the top of it, ordering the Mudwings to stay behind. There was some discussion on top of the barrier, and then Jambu and a few other Rainwings jumped down to the side of the wall that led to the wild parts of the rainforest. There was a small wait, and then the Nightwing soldiers above told Clay's troop to start flying over the wall, one by one, starting with the back and working their way up until reaching Clay, who would fly over last. Clay turned his eyes to his troop, gesturing for them to follow the orders. Umber flew up first, then Marsh, and as Reed pushed Crane to tell her to start lifting up, Clay saw the Rainwing steal the star-shaped fruit.

Fairly far away, a male Nightwing had placed the fruit on an outcropping built into his hut while he had turned to do something else. Before Clay's eyes, the fruit suddenly levitated upwards until it was floating on top of the hut. The Nightwing didn't notice that his fruit was gone until Reed had flown over Clay, but when he did notice its disappearance, the Nightwing craned his head in confusion, looking for it. Suddenly, about when Sora flew up, the Nightwing jerked his head upwards, where a Rainwing revealed herself, holding the Nightwing's fruit. The Nightwing said something to her, although he was too far away for Clay to hear what, and the Rainwing, likely taunting the Nightwing, shook the fruit in front of him and called back down.

The Nightwing called to the Rainwing a few more times, although his posture didn't look _too_ irritated or annoyed. The Rainwing didn't budge. In response, the Nightwing suddenly leaped up, about the same time Pheasant did—although the Rainwing seemed to be ready, as if she had initiated the skirmish through her words. Clay flinched a bit as what was clearly going to morph into a fight started, not really wanting to see how Nightwings handled their troublemakers. But no peacekeepers or anything of the sort came, and, besides, the 'fight' lasted only a few seconds before the Nightwing, the clearly superior fighter, had dropped back down from his jump and then wrestled and pinned the Rainwing to the ground, giving her a smirk as he did. Still no guards came as, Clay becoming less apprehensive and more confused now, the Nightwing reached his claw out for the fruit, simultaneously having a short discussion with the Rainwing, whose posture implied that she was unworried despite the Nightwing boding over her.

Then the Rainwing, clearly only _pretending_ to be grumpy, slapped the fruit into the Nightwing's claw. And then the Nightwing said something, smiled, almost playfully shook his head, and helped the Rainwing up. Then, everything suddenly making less sense by the second, the two twined their tails, the Rainwing mischievously leaned in towards the Nightwing, and the Nightwing efficiently split his fruit in half and, giving her a 'what am I supposed to do with you?' look, shared it with the Rainwing, as if everything preceding had only been a _game_. And then they made it back to where the Nightwing had been before, a couple more sentences were exchanged, and then the Nightwing shook his head again, and then the Rainwing smiled and pulled him closer, and then, suddenly and inconceivably, she kissed him. She _kissed_ him. _She kissed him!_ A _Rainwing_ kissed a _Nightwing!_ And then the Nightwing _kissed back!_

Clay, now petrified in complete shock, only realized that the guards at the wall had been calling him to fly over for quite a good portion of time when a Nightwing guard from above flew down and shook him. Clay jerked out of his gaze, then focused on the Nightwing soldier, trying not to (impolitely) stare at the two dragons, who appeared to be, _astonishingly_ , an _intertribal couple_. The Nightwing followed where Clay's eyes had been and then burst out laughing when he saw what Clay had been staring at. "No, I'm sorry," he managed once the guffaws had faded. "I suppose it is surprising. But I would think that once you found out that the Nightwings— _the Nightwings, the most bigoted tribe of all time, by all the moons_ —have not only unified with the Rainwings, but have also scrapped the idea of a queen, that you wouldn't find our acceptance of intertribal mating too surprising."

Clay continued to stare at the Nightwing soldier, who still had a smile left from his laughing fit and who was still looking out towards the intertribal couple. The Rainwing and Nightwing had separated from the kiss and were simply talking, as if everything they had done had been _completely normal_. "I suppose it is surprising," the Nightwing repeated, becoming a bit more contemplative. "It really doesn't happen very often. Most Rainwings are still exceedingly sore about what the Nightwings did to them. Most Nightwings, even if they'll _accept_ Rainwings, won't ever think of _mating_ with them. Then there's the fact that both tribes have completely different styles of mating, and the fact that the risk of having a hybrid—we don't know if the combination of Rainwing and Nightwing traits will be negative or negligible—is generally considered too big for our broken tribes. But some Nightwings were exceedingly kind or flat-out went against Fierceteeth during our reign of horror, winning the affections of some Rainwings, and some Rainwings showed enough smarts or kindness or just plain cheerfulness in the face of disaster to win the affections of some Nightwings. So, occasionally, two dragons will decide that they don't care about any of those worries. They won't care what other dragons around them say or do when they show each other affection. They'll simply refuse to leave each other, ever. We've decided not to resist against that, considering that we have so many other, much more important things to worry about."

"Yeah," Clay responded, distantly and without too much thought, most of his brain still focusing on what the Nightwing had said and what he had tried his best to grasp. There wasn't much time to think, anyways, because the Nightwing almost immediately gestured for Clay to fly over the wall after Clay said this. The Mudwing turned towards the stone and jumped up, flapped his wings, soared upwards past the wall and then downwards past the wall, and finally landed on the other side, with Jambu and Clay's siblings ready for their brief training session. Jambu nodded as Clay touched down, then started splitting Clay's troop up, preparing them for war.


	38. Part 2: Chapter 18

**A/N: Well, I didn't get this up before Sunday (I did say _maybe_ last chapter), but this chapter is _extra_ _insanely long_ in consolation. ( _10,000_ words!? I don't even know what to think about that.) Now, before I say anything more, I'm going to say this: This _is_ a long chapter, but a good portion of its insane length actually comes from the [I actually lost track and I'm too lazy to go word count this; I think it's ~3000] word Author's Note at the end. So I'm not going to say _anything_ more up here. Nothing. If you want to read an Author's Note, wait until the end of the chapter.**

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There was a Rainwing, Clay knew, on that dragonbark. The Rainwing's camouflage actually wasn't that _good_ , but Clay figured that that was the point; that dragon was probably the one Jambu had ordered to be spottable. The other Rainwings had been ordered to make themselves harder to find, such as the Rainwing Clay was pretty sure was only about two dragon's lengths away from him. That dragon was literally just standing in front of him, not on a tree or behind a shrub, just on the ground. Clay had missed the Rainwing at first, however; the camouflage displayed by the dragon was exceedingly impressive and almost flawless. The Mudwing had only caught sight of the Rainwing when he saw that giveaway of wavering light in a vague, dragon-like shape. And Clay was also pretty sure there was another Rainwing closer to the top of the canopy. There was just a slight inaccuracy with the way a certain spot's leaves looked, which gave the dragon away. According to Jambu, there should be one more…

There. The dragon had placed itself in between the leaves and the bark of the same tree, half suspended in the air, making the display of camouflage impressive with its intricacy. There were flaws, though: Some of the leaves were textured oddly, and the camouflage didn't match up perfectly with its surroundings, especially near the edge of the dragon. Clay nudged Jambu, who was quietly standing beside him, and then pointed, one by one, to where he believed each hidden Rainwing was.

Jambu nodded after each point, until he said, after the fourth, "Perfect. That's about three and a half minutes—not bad at all. I say you should do a couple more rounds of this, though. It's exceedingly important for you to be able to detect hidden Rainwings. You can wait over there while we set up a new test."

At this, all four Rainwings Clay had found flashed back into view and half-jumped, half-flew back down towards Jambu (except the one already on the ground, who just stepped forward). Clay moved away while all the Rainwings huddled together so that the group could talk about more ways to test Clay's newly-developed Rainwing detection skills. It wasn't necessarily a new _concept_ ; Clay had heard about Rainwing detection tactics before coming to the rainforest. The Nightwings, likely under Fierceteeth, now that Clay was thinking about it, had given out large amounts of information about Rainwings after Mangrove and other Rainwing Talons started to become threats towards Burn's forces; therefore, Clay _had_ heard of the standard strategies of "look for inaccuracies in the scenery" and "look for wavering light." He had never put these tactics into practice, though, and now that he was trying to, he was finding that seeing past Rainwing camouflage was a lot harder than the scrolls—and Deathbringer and Beetle, during their confrontation with the Tears of the Rain—made it out to be.

Jambu had attempted to encourage Clay by assuring him that detection wasn't easy, and that dragons often had to practice for weeks before becoming proficient at the skill. But that encouragement didn't really comfort Clay, considering that he _had_ to learn the skill by _tonight_ , in order to be ready for the night's battle. If it took Clay minutes to find a hidden Rainwing when he was just standing still and focusing on the task, then how in Pyrrhia was he supposed to find a hidden Rainwing in the middle of a frantic battle with the Tears of the Rain? How was he supposed to avoid another disabling venom strike from a Rainwing if he couldn't see them? The answer, simply, was that he couldn't, so Clay knew that he had to listen to Jambu and keep practicing.

At least, unlike every other member of his troop sans Reed, Clay didn't have to go back and re-practice _tree gliding_ , his _evil arch-nemesis_ (other than Scarlet and the like, of course), and, as another point of relief, crossbow firing had been deceptively easy. Reloading the weapon was the hardest part; all firing detailed was a simple process of lift, cradle the thing and aim, then pull the trigger and brace for the kick. Clay hadn't had much issue with using it. Most members of Clay's troop hadn't had any issues with it, actually, except for Marsh, who hadn't been able to hit anything until the Nightwing crossbow teacher had come to Clay's brother's side and put the weapon in his other claw, telling Marsh "to use the other eye when you fire." It had seemed like a strange order at the time, but it had somehow managed to work, and Marsh was soon firing the crossbow as well as any other Mudwing from Clay's troop.

Of course, Jambu had told them, it wasn't likely that Clay's troop would be given crossbows this night, as the weapons were considered too valuable to be allowed to leave the rainforest, especially due to the fact that the Nightwings apparently had snuck an earlier model off on Scarlet, and the tribe wanted to keep the newer versions secret. However, Jambu had said that if any Mudwing got the chance, they would be allowed to temporarily pick up a discarded or ownerless crossbow and use it as if it was theirs, as long as it was dropped again before the weapons left the rainforest.

The main issue for Clay, actually, was the rundown he had gone through over melee combat. Fighting a Rainwing was completely different than fighting a Seawing, Icewing, or Sandwing. The ranged venom spray was _always_ the most dangerous attack possible from the dragon; most other attacks would be negligible in comparison. Fighting one of the previously pacifistic dragons required almost dancing outside their venom range until an opportunity for attack presented itself. But Clay's problem wasn't really with the new fighting style; Clay's problem was his back, which he had quite quickly found out was _not_ better.

If Clay could flawlessly dodge every attack during a fight, then the pain in his back was limited to a constant, yet minor irritation. But at one point during fighting training, Clay had jumped backwards, rearing up to avoid a blunted attack coming from one of the trainers, and he had accidentally crashed back-first into a tree. Clay had literally shrieked and fallen back down without defense when he had slammed into that bark; it had felt like something sharp and spiky had impaled him, except that actually being impaled would probably have been _less_ painful. The wound was a _gigantic_ weak spot, and Clay _had_ to remember to cover it and not let _anything_ touch it.

Clay took another step away from Jambu and the other Rainwings and made it into a patch of sun that came shining down from the canopy above. Clay sat down, letting the light shine on his scales while he glanced around. The wall, as promised, was only yards away, where unfatigued Rainwings and crossbow-holding Nightwings stood watch. Opposite the wall was a small space of rainforest before the land transitioned into the war zone Clay had run through on his way to the castle. Clay could see Crane, who was almost directly above him, managing to tree glide through those standing rainforest trees relatively easily. Umber and Pheasant were up there too, if Clay remembered right. Their attempts at tree gliding were going a lot closer to Clay's early ones, as the eldest Mudwing saw, from the corner of his eyes, when Umber suddenly slammed into the ground from above, kicking up dirt and rolling for a good couple of seconds before dizzily regaining his feet. Then there was Marsh, trying to find more hidden Rainwings over with another Rainwing general, keeping his eyes on a spot above him like he was trying to decide if a discrepancy was, in reality, a disguised dragon. And Sora was with Reed and the Nightwing crossbow teacher, both of Clay's siblings holding crossbows in their claws, both slightly hovering in the air within a relatively clear space that had been designated as "the firing range."

There was a somewhat large purple fruit on a wooden stand in that space, and Clay saw Reed lift up and aim his crossbow at it. The Nightwing instructor gave the order to fire, and Clay's brother let his arrow fly. The projectile slammed through the fruit, never even slowing down, and the fruit was annihilated. Red juice exploded out of it, coating both the stand and the surrounding rainforest with crimson. It was almost as if, Clay visualized with a twinge, a small dragon had exploded in front of him, leaving blood everywhere. That kind of power—it could slaughter dragons, like they were nothing more than that fruit. And Scarlet had that power in her claws, and she could use it to massacre his tribe. Dragons would die, just like before, and their corpses would fill the battlefields by the dozens or by the hundreds, just like before, and Clay, even if his troop wasn't going to go back home to Moorhen and were going to instead join the Outclaws, which was starting to look like a better and better possibility with Scarlet on his queen's doorstep, he would still have to fight, just like before, and that meant that he'd have to—

Clay suddenly realized what his brain was doing when he noticed that he was breathing heavily, and that he was starting to shake. The Mudwing tried to rationalize, but it was too late: The memories of war were coming back. Flashes of dragons he had been talking with just seconds before suddenly dying next to him, flashes of one of his siblings almost getting speared, clawed, or burnt to death, and then came the flashes that Clay hated, the flashes Clay was petrified of, the flashes of _them_.

The Icewing always came first. Always. Not the one who had almost killed Crane that same day, but a different one, although she had still been female, and had still been young. Crane's near-death experience had enraged Clay that day, although not because someone had tried to take the life one of his siblings, and not because someone had tried to kill sweet, innocent Crane. The fact of the matter was that the Mudwings were at war, and dragons were going to die, and there could have been acceptance and forgiveness and the thought, "That dragon who killed Crane—they were just following orders, and they didn't want her dead any more than we did," no matter how much not having Crane next to them would truly hurt inside. No, what had enraged Clay was Crane's attacker's reaction: After the Icewing fell down towards Crane with the clear intent to kill, and after Clay had forgotten everything around him and forced himself towards his sister, and after the Bigwings had slammed the Icewing away right as her claws were shooting towards his sister's throat, the Icewing recovered and retreated from Clay and the other members of his troop, but not before she hissed towards Clay's youngest sister, as clear and as chilling as ice, as feral as a beast thirsty for blood, and so angry that Clay couldn't even conceive a comparison, "You got _lucky_ , Mudwing. If we meet again, you _won't_ be, and I _will_ kill you." As if that Icewing had wanted to kill not to defend herself, not because she was following orders, but because she took _pleasure_ in the act.

Clay had found himself furious as the Icewing had flown off, furious at the fact that there were dragons who could be so psychopathic as to _want_ war, as to _want_ to kill, and at the fact that dragons like the ones in his troop were being dragged into these dragons' war. Then his thoughts turned hypocritical: Clay wanted to fight these dragons, he wanted to protect his siblings from them, and he would do _anything_ to further that goal. Clay's fury started to empower him, and dragons began backing away from his siblings faster with this fury commanding him, so Clay had forced himself to let anger, an emotion uncommon but nowhere near unknown to the Mudwing, take over. So when Clay had engaged that Icewing, the one who had looked so much like the dragon who had almost killed Crane, he had been uncontrollably inflamed. He had also been dislocated, as war had slowly overwhelmed him, with nothing but its death and blood and crying surrounding him. Clay had gone into that fight only half-believing that he was really fighting for his life in a war, only half-believing that the dragon he was battling was real, only half-believing he was even capable of doing what he was about to do. Clay had hit the Icewing in front of him with an unexpected attack, knocking her the slightest bit into the air and off-balance. Clay could have slammed into her again, pushed her down, and then he could have overpowered her, still winning the fight by quickly smashing her head against the ground and knocking her unconscious.

But Clay hadn't done that. The Icewing's defenses fell, and Clay didn't think. He followed his years of military training. His next action was only habitual, as if that could nullify the terribleness of it: Clay had clawed forward, and he had torn the Icewing's throat out.

After that, Clay had almost shut down. It only took about a second; it only took Clay seeing the Icewing's throat pouring out icy blue blood, and Clay seeing that same blood already drying on his own claw, for his brain to start connecting things and for the empowering and blinding rage to vanish. Clay remembered everything, even at present: stepping back from the Icewing, whose eyes, the eyes of someone who was just another dragon, were wide open with shock, that same crushing shock that Clay was feeling. Beginning to panic, feeling as much terror as the dying dragon in front of him. Watching the Icewing sway, her arm only making it halfway to her blood-covered and blood-pouring throat before she fell, hitting the ground with a thud that Clay could hear clearly, the only thing he could hear clearly, despite the deafening sounds of war around him. Her twitching, then her movements ending forever, because of _him_ , because of _Clay_. Losing his innocence and becoming a killer. Not being able to handle it. Shaking. Falling apart. Hyperventilating on the battlefield. Older Mudwings pushing him back, yelling at him to get a grip on himself before he was killed. Forcing himself to regain himself. Forcing himself to remember that his siblings needed him, and that he couldn't just stand here, die, and leave them in the middle of war. Jumping back into war, leaving the dead Icewing behind like she had just been another part of training. Trying to lessen the blow, trying to tell himself that he had been _forced_ to do it, that he had been in war and that he had _needed_ to do it, that the Icewing would have killed him if he hadn't killed her.

Cuddling alone with Asha that night, crying, literally crying about what he'd done, wanting to believe that it would never happen again, swearing to himself that it would never happen again, _knowing_ that he could never bring himself to do it again.

Clay had been very wrong.

A Sandwing, scales burning as she screamed and turned to ash. A Seawing, his stomach ripped open in a massive gash, the dragon clutching it as he futilely tried to contain the blood and organs and life within. Another Icewing, one whose wing got caught in a burst of flame during a mid-air battle and who fell, that wing useless, farther and farther away, out of the sky and towards the ground, where he slammed into it and never left. Another Seawing, older and fiercer, who had come in an ambush, who Clay had almost been speared through the head by, and who Crane had jumped on, distracting him for long enough to Clay to counter back, slash the aquatic dragon's chest into nothing, and end his attacker's life.

Clay had never lost himself to the point where he would allow himself to simply kill without thinking, but there had been a point, a horrifying point, when Clay had realized that killing was becoming easier, that dragons he fought no longer had distinction, that thinking of the enemy like they weren't other dragons had become second nature on the battlefield. Burn had been killed before Clay could completely lose his morals, however, and because of this, each death that he had caused still stuck out like a fire in his mind. A Sandwing that Reed, Umber, and him had all surrounded and then clawed to death once the Sandwing's deadly counters failed. A Seawing, who Clay had been forced to strangle because _she just wouldn't stop fighting_ , and Clay hadn't been able to think of anything else to do, so he had squeezed her throat and had fought off the struggles and hadn't thought and had just kept squeezing until he had realized that her breathing was over. An Icewing, who had been hit by two simultaneous bolts of fire by both him and Sora, who Sora had sworn afterwards had almost melted in front of them. More fires in Clay's mind. More deaths. More dragons gone forever, because of no one else but him.

He didn't enjoy it; he _hated_ it. But Clay had grown up in war. Asha had drilled it into the whole troop, but especially into the relatively soft-hearted Clay: Sometimes there wasn't time to talk. Sometimes there wasn't time to feel guilt or aversion or humanity; sometimes killing was unavoidable. Other dragons had whipped Clay's compassion away, too, by telling him that "they" aren't dragons, that "they" are enemies. Objects. Obstacles. _Things_. And Clay knew what happened to dragons that didn't fight: They died. Clay had seen entire troops, oftentimes the ones comprised of the friendliest and the most peace-loving Mudwings, killed from one single ambush. And yet, even though Clay knew he'd do anything, _anything_ , for his siblings, he wanted to promise himself that he'd never kill anyone. He wanted, when he was a dragonet, to think that there was a way to talk, a way to compromise, a way in any fight for both dragons to come out alive. Then Crane almost died, Clay forget those vows in the chaos of war, and then the promise was broken. And as the war dragged on, Clay started objectifying his enemies, starting forcing himself to hate the dragons he was fighting like they didn't have mates and friends and families just like he did, and started turning from a peace-loving and caring Mudwing into a nothing but a killer whenever he was forced onto the battlefield.

Clay closed his eyes and breathed, suddenly feeling very cold despite the heat of the rainforest. He didn't _want_ to kill anymore. He had thought that he wouldn't _have_ to kill anymore. And now he was back at war, the only difference being his opponents and his allies. Was that even a real difference? It would still be like before: every day going by with Clay unsure if all his siblings, all the dragons he loved, would still be alive the next. Every day going past always with the mention of more death, more blood, and more horrors. Every day leaving Clay wondering if the war would ever end, if he'd ever be safe, or if the war would go on forever, and if Clay could only leave by letting death take him.

"Hey, are you okay?" Jambu's voice, concerned, suddenly asked. Clay was roughly reminded that his thoughts had sent him into a shaking fit when the Rainwing broke Clay out of his thoughts and brought the Mudwing's attention to his own shuddering body. Half of Clay wanted to chide himself for his breakdown; he wasn't even on the battlefield yet. How was he supposed to survive and lead his troop if he started falling apart on the training ground?

The other half of Clay's thoughts, however, matched up with what Jambu clearly thought when he had taken a better look at the Mudwing and seen Clay's uncontrollable trembles: The Bigwings needed help. Jambu shook away the few inquisitive Rainwings that had come with him, talked softly towards Clay, and offered the Mudwing his tail for support. Clay curled his own tail around Jambu's and just breathed, trying to calm down. "Clay, you'll be fine," Jambu supported in a quiet tone, "and your troop will be fine, too. None of you are going to die, okay? I won't let it happen."

"Thank you," Clay managed, quickly, before making himself take slow breaths, feeling a bit better from Jambu's comfort. He squeezed Jambu's tail, trying to force his worry out on it. Eventually, Clay, feeling a little better, tried to elaborate on his condition, but all that came out was, "It's just..." Clay stopped; his voice wasn't cooperating, so the Mudwing calmed himself further before he said, "I'm just worried about everything. I'm worried about dying. I'm worried about my siblings dying. I'm even worried about other dragons, even the ones from the Tears of the Rain, dying. I don't want to fight, Jambu. I don't want to go to war. But what else can we do?"

"Exactly," Jambu replied, quietly. "Blister, Scarlet, Glory… they've all forced our claw." Then Jambu's words stopped, and the Rainwing stared out into the rainforest and destroyed village beyond, only breathing, his scales still controlled, although Clay thought he saw some flashes of blue or grey shine through them. Then Jambu gave a final squeeze back on Clay's tail and uncurled his own, letting the now calmer Mudwing go.

"No," Jambu restated, distantly, confusing Clay until he realized that the Rainwing was repeating his earlier promise. "Clay, I'm not going to let any one of you die. Because I know how absolutely destroying it is to lose someone close."

"What do you mean?" Clay asked, not thinking too clearly, his brain still foggy from his minor panic attack. It only took Clay a second after the sentence had left to realize that Jambu had probably been talking about Glory—his sister, if he recalled correctly.

But Jambu did something surprising in response to Clay's question. He wasn't direct, and didn't just state, "Glory." He wasn't circuitous, and didn't just mumble, "My sister—she... she's gone now." He just started talking. "Glory and I," he muttered, looking out to the rainforest for just a second more before he turned towards Clay, clearly not finished with his speech. "We… when..." Then Jambu stopped, Clay saw the smallest release of emotion reveal itself in the Rainwing's scales, and then Jambu took a breath and started again.

"Glory and I grew up together," Jambu stated, calm, yet melancholic. "The Rainwings didn't start keeping track of which dragonet was theirs, who was whose cousin or sibling or anything like that, until Fierceteeth came in and started forcing us to, in order to moderate our numbers better. So I didn't know she was my sister at first, when she crawled out of her newly-broken egg, and when I was just a dragonet. And yet, we still became friends almost right after she hatched… best friends. The _only_ thing that changed when I found out that she was my sister was that all our potential mating prospects with each other disappeared. We were literally already doing everything else together.

"And I mean everything, Clay." Jambu stopped a bit here, letting his scales start showing a bit more of that blue-grey that had rushed through him before—emotion Clay hadn't truly been aware the Rainwing had been hiding. Jambu continued, "We would talk together, tree glide together, lay in the sun together, play together, sleep together, and comfort each other after anything bad—nightmares, mainly—happened. However," Jambu suddenly turned the slightest bit of pink as he chuckled the smallest amount in remembrance, "I have to say that we were quite the odd pair. I was the sleepy one, the one who preferred sun time to exploring the forest, the 'Glory, just twenty more minutes of sun...' kind of dragon—the stereotypical Rainwing. Glory was different. She was the mischievous one, the one who the adults disliked but who all the dragonets loved, the one who would always push us to do more than sleep, the 'Oh, come on, Jambu, just one more race around the rainforest!' kind of dragon—a Rainwing that could have been amazing if the world had let her.

"No, not 'she _could_ have been amazing.' She _was_ amazing," Jambu corrected himself, the pink fading back into blue-grey around now. "She'd do all sorts of spectacular things for our tribe. She was helping build gardens and even new houses when she was hardly two. She'd never leave a dragon in need; she'd hand over her own fruit if need be to keep another Rainwing happy. And she was motivated, Clay. She wanted to learn about Pyrrhia, when most Rainwings didn't even care about the rainforest around them. She would purposely miss parts of sun time every now and then to talk with our older queen, Grandeur, about some of her stories from the days of old. She was unlike so many of us that a very small few of the nastier Rainwings would actually make fun of her and call her weird. Glory didn't care; all she wanted was to make us a fantastic tribe again, and she was determined to do that no matter what anyone thought. She wanted to fix our overindulgence of sun—I remember her telling me that we could do so much more if we would get out of the sun for just a couple hours each day. She wanted to go out into Pyrrhia and show the dragons outside of the rainforest all that the Rainwings could do. She wanted to do, and probably could have done, more for the Rainwings than a whole group of other queens could do at once. Clay, she loved the entire tribe, and she just wanted to better it.

"That's not to say that she never had fun," Jambu stated, chuckling the smallest bit, although again in a bittersweet tone, as the hint of pink came back. "Three Moons, Glory was always having fun. She was always swinging around the trees, always practicing her camouflage so she could get better at our games of hide-and-seek, always playing in the rainforest with her friends—not just me, because despite all her quirks, she was still very popular among us young dragons. She was always laughing, always so fulfilled, always so playful, always so… happy, I guess. Always, in her 'oh, Three Moons, come on' tone, 'Sun time's great, but I don't want to sleep _all_ day! Come on, Jambu! Let's go hunt for mangoes; it'll be fun!' Always, in a giggle, 'You know why I practice my camouflage so much? I do it so I can spy on Splendor and Magnificent and the other queens when they're not looking!' Always, 'Three Moons, Jambu, come on! The sun will be there tomorrow! This frog won't be! Look at how awesome it is!' Always, 'When I'm the queen—yeah, I'm gonna not just be _a_ queen, but _the_ queen—I'm going to _force_ you not to lay in the sun all day, Jambu! Now get up and help me find my kiwi!'" Jambu paused for a second, the pink suddenly disappearing to be replaced with a guilty purple. Jambu put his head down; he was struggling to get the next sentence out. He finally managed, brokenly, "'Jambu, shouldn't we be worried about that Rainwing who disappeared yesterday? I mean, Rainwings have been disappearing for years, and none of them have ever come back. What if something is going on? Come on, help me look for him, please?'"

Jambu swallowed, his scales flushing with a small wave of dull red as he did, although, mainly, Jambu's scales just became a darker shade of purple. Then there was a pause, and Jambu was obviously having trouble getting the next sentence out, too, showing weakness of fortitude Clay hadn't entirely been aware the Rainwing had possessed; even though Jambu hadn't ever seemed like a very emotional dragon to Clay, he was almost breaking down in front of him right now. "Then the Nightwings came," the Rainwing finally managed, a snippet of anger intermixing itself with the depression.

"They took everything from us. They took away our sun, they took away our friends, they took away our _life_. Rainwings didn't grasp what was happening, that the Nightwings were planning to enslave us, until after they were around us. We just fell asleep one night, and when we woke up, the Nightwings were ruling. Our queens were dead, and their corpses were on display for everyone to see. The ones who tried to resist, or who panicked and made it look like they were resisting, were beaten and muzzled. If someone did anything to displease our new masters, then they were humiliatingly and viciously punished, if that dragon wasn't executed first, of course.

"Some dragons ran. Some were lucky and were taken in by your queen or the Talons of Peace. Some were unlucky and were captured by Scarlet, who would rip their wings off and leave them to die or throw them into her arena after the world was told about Rainwing venom. But Glory would _not_ leave her tribe; she wanted to stay here and save it. Now, Glory was smart. She didn't resist when the Nightwings came; she played the submissive the second she saw how demonic the Nightwings acted towards the our tribe, and she never let anyone catch on to how dangerous she actually was. But this came with a price: watching her tribe mates suffer and die, watching blood pore and dragons convulse and corpses burn into nothing, and being forced to do nothing about it.

"For the first few days, maybe, Glory was confused, unbelieving, and in shock. Then, when she started grasping what was truly happening to us, she started breaking down. She told me once, about halfway through Fierceteeth's reign, that she didn't know what to feel. She said that sometimes she'd feel scared, and she told me that sometimes she was just so scared that she wanted to leave everyone behind and try to run. Sometimes, she told me, she'd feel dismal, especially after one of our friends came back from a beating covered in blood and unconscious, and she only wanted to cry. And then she said that sometimes she felt unforgivably angry, and that she wanted the Nightwings who had taken everything away from us to all just _die_."

Jambu shook his head, shuddering the smallest bit, as he said this. Then, going back in his tale, he said, "Look, Clay. Glory had become irritable—grumpy, unhappy, frustrated at her own apathy—when Fierceteeth took away her sun, maybe more so than the rest of us. But, like I just said, we all became like that, and, at first, Glory was still there. Glory, who would try to cheer us up after a bad punishment. Glory, who would try and persuade us that it would get better, that the Nightwings would have to change eventually. Glory, who'd nudge me at night, when we were huddled together for comfort, and whisper, trying her best to sound playful but actually just sounding like she was about to break out sobbing, 'Well, I always said that you'd have to get out of the sun one day. Guess who was right?'

"But then things got worse. The euthanizations started—dragons of all sorts were taken away and never came back. The dragon who had originally been in charge of administering our punishments, who, at least by the Nightwings' standards, had been fair with his sentences, lost jurisdiction of the task and was replaced by a harsher, crueler, and an irredeemably more _horrible_ dragon. And then, one day, Glory dropped her cover and stood up for a Rainwing dragonet. The dragonet had unknowingly taken a Nightwing's fruit, and Glory defended her younger tribe mate, trying to tell the angry Nightwings that it had just been an accident. She even took the fruit from the dragonet and gave it back to the Nightwing it had belonged to. And then, in retaliation for 'interfering with Nightwing affairs,' for 'disobedience,' she was beaten. Savagely. My sister was dragged into a hospital, covered in blood, massive rips through her scales, barely breathing, and that, I think, is the one event that truly began to erode her into what she is today. The only things she would say as she recovered would be furious murmurs, generally only given to me or another close friend when we were alone, and always in the reign of 'I hate the Nightwings, Jambu. I _hate_ them. They _need_ to die, and _I_ want to be the one who kills them.'"

Jambu had grown angry during his speech, although towards whom—Glory, or the Nightwings who had perverted her, that "horrible" dragon, perhaps—Clay wasn't sure. The Rainwing took a moment to calm himself, then continued, "Rage had filled Glory, and before long, that rage had turned into hate. Clay, what happened with Glory was the exact same thing that happened to a lot of Rainwings: They felt hate, and they let it control them. Quite simply, most of us couldn't do anything _except_ let it take control. When it was just the Rainwings and the rainforest, we would feel angry or sad sometimes, but there was never hate or depression, these long-lasting, never-fading, hideous emotions. But then the Nightwings came, and these horrible emotions started seeping into us. And…" Jambu struggled for the words here, before he just shook his head and said, "Look, hate is powerful. It takes control of you if you give it half a chance, but it's also unbelievably empowering. Rainwings like Glory let hate fill them and twist them _because_ of that power, because hate was something inflaming that they could use to fill the emptiness the Nightwings had caused, something that could make up for all their friends that were gone, something that could make up for their lost way of life, something that could fill the void where love and joy had been before.

"Glory began to hate the Nightwings, and this is when she changed. Slowly, hate twisted Glory away from what she had been before. She started thinking only about revenge, only about killing those she hated, and she lost sight of everything else—being kind, helping others, caring for dragons. That happy dragon? The dragon who had been loving, and caring, and amazing? Gone, as if she had been killed. In her place was nothing but a husk that had been carved hollow by the cruelty of the Nightwings, which was now letting hate fill what had used to be its insides as a sort of cheap replacement. She _became_ what she hated: cruel, intolerant, and evil."

Jambu, who had simply put his head down now, let his scales alternate between the colors of anger and depression, clearly undergoing much more of an ordeal than he was letting onto. This time, the now-calm Mudwing offered the Rainwing his tail. Jambu nodded, took it, and was silent. Then, after a second of comfort, Jambu suddenly said, his voice piercing through the sounds of the rainforest, "I wasn't much different than Glory. I felt that same hate, and, sometimes, I wanted to let it take me and control me. But, for me, there always was, I don't know, a sort of..."

There was another pause as the Rainwing lost his train of thought, then Jambu started over, reiterating, "Look, I used to teach Nightwings how to tree glide. I had done it before with Rainwings, so they figured that I could do it with Nightwings. The job was... it was tolerable. At first, I used to be able to try and pretend that nothing had changed, that I was just teaching black and purple Rainwings how to jump, that whenever one of the more prideful Nightwings fell and hurt themselves and blamed _me_ for their injury, that the cuts and bruises that came afterwards had only come from a fall from the branches, from an accident. But then the lack of sun and all the abuse got to me, and part of me started dreading everything—work, the Nightwings' abuse, _living_ —and then that part of me started _hating_ _everything_. That part started wanting revenge, started imagining Nightwings dying, their scales melting into nothing but tar because of _my_ venom, and then I realized that that part of me, _so badly_ , wanted to kill Nightwings, and to make them _pay_. That part of me was the part that wouldn't mind if I turned into a monster, or if I could only feel spite, as long as I could get that revenge. It was the part of a dragon that Glory let take control of her.

"But there was another part of me—the part that only saw other dragons in Nightwings. A lot of times, I think Glory never saw the things that I did; she, considered a skill-less but not worthless Rainwing by the Nightwing higher-ups, was assigned to hard labor, and I think that her work never gave her the view of the Nightwings that my job did. There were a lot of terrible dragons who came to learn how to tree glide, yes, but there were other dragons that simply were different.

"There was a time when a Nightwing ripped one of his wings—it didn't render him flightless, but it was still a tear—when he fell from the trees above. He could have had me executed; Three Moons, I was _supposed_ to have been executed, for 'harming a Nightwing and almost permanently handicapping him.' The Nightwing from the trees defended me, saying that the injury was _his_ fault, not mine, and he talked me out of my death. There was a time when a Nightwing who had been injured among the treetops had me whipped to the point until I had almost fainted. A different Nightwing carried me to one of the Rainwing infirmaries, and whispered that she wished she could do more—and then she managed to send me a couple pounds of fruit the next day. There were Nightwings who would _pay_ me for extra tree gliding lessons, generally in food, like they couldn't just force me to give my time to them. I saw hoards and hoards of nothing but evil, but I also saw dragons who didn't want what was happening to the Rainwings, and who tried to change things. I doubt any Nightwing wanted a Rainwing _takeover_ , but I knew that some didn't want what Fierceteeth did. That was why I never could agree with Glory's policies of genocide, the policies that I want to believe were brought upon by the fact that Glory never saw that good in those dragons—I don't want to think that Glory was just innately more violent or heartless than the rest of us, although... although that might have been the case.

"Now, I followed Glory as she built the Tears of the Rain. But I had realized that some Nightwings were different, and I tried to remember that we weren't fighting beasts. I tried to keep Glory's mindset under control; I tried to make her remember that every dragon was different, and that just because a Nightwing was a Nightwing, that didn't make him or her automatically evil. That didn't mean I was pacifistic. I followed Glory into the Nightwing Castle, I was with her when she killed Fierceteeth, and I even finished the former queen's mate myself. But that was when I wanted to stop. We had won. Glory didn't—she _couldn't_ —see that.

"Glory couldn't see past her hate, she couldn't work through her hate, and she couldn't _control_ her hate; she became nothing but a vessel for hatred itself, like she had been possessed. Part of me thinks Glory wanted her old life of pure happiness and no Nightwings back so much that she completely lost herself in the quest for that ideal, and part of me thinks Glory realized that she could never truly re-make the Rain Kingdom into what it had been before, and she decided to destroy the dragons who had done that to her. She told me, the first day during her rule, before I broke away and an hour before she murdered the Nightwing dragonets, that she couldn't feel anything for the Nightwings, that her heart had been destroyed by them, that she only hated them for all they had done, and that she only wanted them dead. The last time I saw Glory—Glory, my _real_ sister—was right after she said that, right when she asked, with a bit of fear sneaking its way into her voice, 'Why can't I feel _anything_ but hate towards them?'

"I tried to reason with her. After she executed every Nightwing in our new castle, I stood up to her and told her, in front of a huge congregation of members of the Tears of the Rain, that she was turning into another Fierceteeth. What was left of Glory disappeared at that exact moment. She broke, Clay, as if my sentence had been the gust of wind that toppled the tree, and she _screamed_ , 'Why shouldn't I be another Fierceteeth, Jambu!? Why shouldn't the Nightwings _suffer like we did!?'_ That precise moment, when my sister left and never returned, was when the Tears of the Rain split in two. Some dragons, who had suddenly been hit with the knowledge of how heartless they had become, rushed to protect me. Others grouped around Glory, and then my group backed away towards the doors of the room we had been in. It wasn't a fight, not yet. I tried to turn her once more. I tried to ask Glory to accept Nightwings, to let them change, to give them another chance, and she snapped at me, and she yelled, 'The Nightwings have poisoned your brain, Jambu! You're _wrong_! They _have_ to die, and if you're not with me, then _you're against me_!'" Jambu stopped again, closer to breakdown here than ever before.

"'You're my best friend, Jambu! We'll always stick together, no matter what!'" Jambu quoted, weakly. "What ever happened to that Glory? What ever happened to my sister?"

Jambu waited a few seconds, letting sorrow overtake him and his scales for those few moments of time, and then he sent the smallest flash of color down his scales, bringing them back to a light, purple-ish, controlled shade. Then he stared out at the rainforest and the destruction again, and then just murmured, "It hurts. And I try to hide how much it hurts. I try to hide how much I hate the fact that I couldn't reach her. Clay... I'm _not_ going to let any of you die tonight—because that emptiness, that terrible, unnatural emptiness of losing someone so close to you, that emptiness that I feel all the time, is something no one should ever experience."

* * *

 **A/N: *in Deathbringer's "emotional and dramatic" voice from Chapter 9 (of Part 2)*: Do you see why this was originally one chapter? Do you see why I originally wanted all these relatively unexciting (although fairly depressing) backstories and descriptions to be concentrated into one big blob so it didn't slow the plot down too much?**

 **But that's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about the fact that I've written down so many words that I have now surpassed 100,000 of them. The amount of insanely awesome that accomplishment is? It's, well, insanely awesome. (Hopefully—I mean, half of those 100k words could just be me spouting nothing but crap, and I'd still be at 100k words.) I don't really even know what the heck to say except to repeat myself _again_ and say, "Thank you, thank you, _thank you_ everyone who actually reads this thing, because without all of you, I would not be pushed to do as much with this as I do with you at my back." So, to celebrate, I'm going to write _more_ words! **

**Basically, this is me posting why I did certain things certain ways ( _oh my gosh_ it's an _actual_ Author's Note)—which has never happened before mainly due to spoiler reasons. But the rainforest's history is more or less developed, so I'm going to give you all an in-depth look at why I felt it would turn out the way it did. Which means that this whole, bold thing is a _massive_ analysis and interpretation about characters in a book series about dragons and how they would all change without a certain fictional world-defining event. (Sometimes I think I like _Wings of Fire_ just _a_ _little bit_ too much. But, hey, if you've gotten this far into the story, then we're probably all in the same boat, huh?)**

 **Let's start where the story does: with Battlewinner. One thing that my choice of setting (a purposely vague amount of years after when the actual books took place—I'll release an actual timeline of this AU one of these chapters, I think) in conjunction with the way I made the world pan out didn't allow for was a good look at some of the Nightwings that were prominent in canon. Case in point: Battlewinner was only developed in two snapshots, one of which was before anything actually changed, and then she gets blown to bits.**

 **The first major change that the lack of the prophecy caused was that it led to Morrowseer preparing for the Rainwing invasion with no hesitation whatsoever. Stonemover enchants the first tunnel around the exact same time in canon—likely earlier, actually, since the prophecy didn't need to be refined between Battlewinner and Morrowseer before they released it to the rest of their tribe. Morrowseer sends scouts into the rainforest immediately after this enchantment is finished in order to spy on and observe the rainforest and the local Rainwings. A group of scouts comes back one day with news that Rainwings can apparently melt any living thing with their venom, which rightfully freaks almost everyone out. Battlewinner sends Morrowseer to get allies, the Nightwings ally with Burn, stuff starts going wrong for Morrowseer, stuff starts going _even more wrong_ for Morrowseer, and so on. You've heard this story before. The thing that's important about it (along with the fact that it allows Sunny/Beetle to exist, because I was not going to lose _two_ Dragonets of Destiny, gosh dangit!) is the fact that Battlewinner is purposely stalling.**

 **Battlewinner may have had an _epic_ design, but she isn't characterized a whole lot in the books. She's evil, she's heartless towards those in her way, and she wants to kill all the Rainwings so her tribe can have a new home. But there was something else about Battlewinner that caught my attention for use in this story: She is, quite obviously, scared of being left behind by her tribe. _She_ wants to lead the Nightwings, and she is not going to accept _anyone else_ on the Nightwing throne ("I am their queen. _I_ am." (from _The Dark Secret_ )). More or less, from what I got of Battlewinner, I couldn't see her launching an attack towards the Rainwings if, like Morrowseer said at the beginning of Part 2, she couldn't be at the helm to lead it, and that massive flaw of hers delays the attack to a point of complete insanity and almost leads her whole tribe into complete extinction.**

 **This transitions into Morrowseer, who I also did not allocate a lot of writing space towards developing even though I really should have. Morrowseer is pretty dang evil in canon, and here, for the most part, he's still pretty dang evil. There's one major change with Morrowseer in this universe, though: He becomes _very_ well aware that he's powerless, and he's absolutely furious about that. The thing with Morrowseer is that, unlike Scarlet or Burn or Blister, he at least had a _somewhat_ idealistic goal: save the dragons of his tribe from dying. I got a sort of dark, almost Knight Templar vision of him throughout the books, a "the Nightwings are doing the terrible things we're doing for two reasons: because we have to, and because we are superior and deserve to" kind of villain—uncaring about anything except the dragons of his tribe. So, when his queen repeatedly bars him from doing anything to help that aforementioned tribe, therefore striking him _in the one and only spot_ _where it hurts_ , Morrowseer basically gets really, really mad, and goes against his own queen to try and do what he believes is right. ****I like to think that going against Battlewinner in the process of trying to save his tribe broke Morrowseer down a little, and that learning that his daughter actually existed did so even more. He was shocked and confused, no matter how much he'd hate to admit it. He'd been forced to think that _maybe_ everything he's been doing has been wrong, especially once Secretkeeper reveals that Moon has been hidden for that exact reason. Maybe he changed a bit that day; maybe it was just shock and he would have returned to his old, evil state once that surprise left. Too bad we never get to find out, as he kinda gets incinerated.**

 **Now that we've talked about why the attack was delayed, and why, therefore, a good portion of important Nightwings were blown up, let's talk about the attack on the rainforest itself. Unless Battlewinner (or Greatness) flat-out _didn't launch the attack_ , the Nightwings were going to curb-stomp the Rainwings, no question. There was no possible way for the Rainwings, especially without a _learned_ Glory leading them, to have defended against a surprise attack planned to almost total perfection for what was the better portion of a decade. So even with the Nightwings, especially their leadership, decimated, they still manage to re-group and take over the rainforest with those that were left. ****For me, there were two main options for the outcome of the rainforest takeover: complete, with the exception of a few who would escape into the Talons of Peace or elsewhere (Glory, Mangrove, maybe Grandeur or _maybe_ Jambu), extinction of the Rainwings, or a slave society with the Nightwings abusing the Rainwings using all manners of horror emerging. I decided somewhat quickly that the rainforest would almost certainly start out as Option Two, especially since the Nightwings had lost a good amount of resources and dragons in the volcanic eruption and would therefore _need_ cheap labor (or slaves) to replace the dragons they had lost. (By the way, that aforementioned loss of resources is why every single Rainwing wasn't muzzled (along with the fact that communicating with a muzzled dragon would be quite hard), and why only the ones that resisted were—the designated muzzles for the Rainwings were part of that huge resource loss; they were supposed to come in with some of the dragons that made up Charge Three, and since a good part of Charge Three was blown up...)**

 **There's many things I could talk about now, but I'm not _entirely_ done with the rainforest, so I'm going to focus on the early rainforest leadership. There was more or less always going to be a "bad queen" before there was a "good queen," but it took me a while to decide on who to put on the throne as the bad queen. In the end, I basically decided that the Nightwings, now desperate for leadership, would look towards their military leaders of the invasion and demand them to take control, since there simply wasn't anyone else left. In the process of making this story, Deathbringer always was going to lead an assassin-based and queen-targeting strike, and that was always going to be Charge One, and Charge Two was always going to be "take control of what was left of the Rainwings' village center," but it took me a while to decide on Fierceteeth for the leader of that aforementioned attack.**

 **Now—and I know that this wasn't really shown in the story, which is why I'm resorting to telling it you in an Author's Note—Fierceteeth here is _not_ the Fierceteeth in the books. I mean, she's still ferocious and irritable, and she's still a supremacist, but when it comes to fighting, she's something else. Remember when Deathbringer said that Morrowseer had trained her almost since birth? Well, _Morrowseer_ _had trained her almost since birth_. As an attempt to do _something_ in order to further his invasion plans, Morrowseer ordered the Nightwings to start training promising young dragonets for an elite invasion force. Fierceteeth _was_ that promising dragonet. _Years_ of nothing but battle training comprised Fierceteeth's childhood, and by the time the invasion was ready, she had a whole different aura to her than she has in the books. No longer did she ever come across as even the slightest bit whiny or pretentious; she was just _powerful_ and _commanding_. That skill and that presence, and the fact that she was female, of course, was how she could go toe to toe (talon to talon?) with Deathbringer for the throne, even when she was still young.**

 **Very bad things happen in the rainforest for a while—this chapter is the main indicator of that, as I didn't want to lessen how awful the Nightwings originally were to the Rainwings. Of course, this just makes the tormented want to go against their tormentors more. Especially without sun, the Rainwings would have formed a resistance group against the Nightwings sooner or later, and with most Nightwings not expecting a rebellion, it was only a matter of time until their forceful reign toppled.**

 **This leads into Glory, who I felt, during the design of this story, could turn out one of two ways: a) she could be a completely normal Rainwing who didn't want to wake up or move any more than the dragons around her or b) she could be some sort of half-insane and definitely-deluded-and-prejudiced villain. Guess which option I took? It didn't take very long for me to decide how Glory was going to turn out, either; I like to think her motivation is more of an innate quality, not something living in a cave and away from sun gave her. I think it should be fairly obvious why Glory turned out a villain in this universe: I took Glory, more or less an anti-hero without her sun, gave her _no_ knowledge of how to handle her negative emotions or her irritation due to her relatively conflict-free childhood (at least Glory was much happier (and nicer, although nowhere near as smart) than she ever was in canon before the Nightwings came), forced her through something hundreds of times worse than anything she underwent under Kestrel, Dune, and Webs, and then gave her the power to do anything she wanted to do to the dragons she hated when she didn't have _any_ control of herself. What I got from that concoction was a half-mad monster. (Besides, even though I do ship Glorybringer (who doesn't, really?), _utterly_ _obliterating_ WoF's biggest and strongest ship was just too good of an opportunity for the evil person in me to pass up on.)**

 **Jambu, I believe, is pretty well explained in this very chapter. I'd say that he almost acts like Glory does in canon: He tries not to let the world see how much everything affects him, how much everything hurts. He's just more subdued and less grumpy than Glory in canon, though, because Jambu really isn't a grumpy dude. The one thing I should clear up is why he's not useless and instead a military commander: It's, like Deathbringer said, partly a side affect of no sun, but it's also because Jambu has a bit of Banana-syndrome (the "sun did bad things to me" dragon, not the fruit) and has forced himself to become smarter because of what happened when he wasn't intelligent: his home and then his sister were both twisted away from him.**

 **The Tears of the Rain, I think, has a very understandable reason for existing: Because there are still Rainwings, like Glory, who can never forgive the Nightwings, and who never want to see them again. Fun fact: I picked the name because it sounded cool and because it's symbolic (Rainwings are crying because of the nightmare they're living through). That's pretty much all you need to know about the rebellion in the ra— wait, the Eclipse? Oh yeah, the Eclipse. It hasn't been very important, and that's mainly because it hardly exists anymore; what's left of the Nightwing intolerance towards Rainwings has been forced to fade, just like the terrorist group. I mean, the only important thing about the Eclipse is that Obsidian indirectly made it before crushing Peril's heart... right?**

 **This all takes us to Deathbringer. When I was first joking about this prospect with my sister, I told her, in response to her asking about Deathbringer, "Deathbringer would be, like, _exactly_ the same." Guess what? He's not. He's similar—he's got that joker, snarker, and ladykiller still in him somewhere. But, a lot of the time, those traits from canon are covered by the traits of the leader that he's been forced to become. Sure, Deathbringer isn't exactly a king, but he's still exceedingly important, and lots of dragons still depend on him; he's started to garner actual worry (or, as he said, _responsibility_ ) directed towards the dragons of his tribe because of this. That fact, and the knowledge of his that he didn't do anything to fight the Nightwings' abuse has, as insane as this is, _humbled_ Deathbringer (although he wasn't necessarily _prideful_ in the series) and made him grow very, very mature (now _that's_ a surprise); he's acting like a king should.**

 **I've got one final thing to talk about: the council system. For a good portion of time after this thing's conception, I was pretty sure I'd still have a monarchy of some sort in place ruling the rainforest. Heck, Deathbringer actually wasn't going to be the main leader of the rainforest at first; there was actually a major debate with myself about putting _Starflight_ on the throne (he was a prince, after all), maybe having him just pull strings behind Fatespeaker, maybe ruling himself. But then I really got into Starflight's character, and I decided that him being king really didn't make sense, even if he was a prince—I'll talk more about Starflight later, so for now I'll just say that he more or less grew up like that kid who doesn't ever socialize and instead spends all his time in his basement, with his dad (and later, Fatespeaker) as his only real friend, especially after his mom died. That's not exactly good leadership material, especially _wartime_ leadership material, and at the point the rainforest was in, good leadership potential was a whole lot more valued than if one was royalty or not. But you know who had great leadership potential? Deathbringer, the dragon who had already been leading the military during Fierceteeth's reign—plus, he had already been considered for the throne _once_ , so why not again? Problem, though: Deathbringer had no family (like he's said), which meant that if he died, there would be _another_ massive succession crisis—and Glory _really_ wanted Deathbringer dead. Eventually, I just went, "You know what? Screw the monarchy! They don't even have a real queen anymore, so why not make their government even more radical? Why not split the power so that if one of the leaders die, there isn't another apocalyptic crisis? Why not just take the progressive nature of the Rainwings' succession system and combine it with the Nightwings' intelligence in order to make something completely different?" And that's how we came to this meritocracy-type government: Because, like Deathbringer said, I figured that the Nightwings and the Rainwings would just be desperate enough for peace to create something new, as long as it worked.**

 **That's it for now. Obviously, I'm nowhere near done explaining everything about this story, but there will probably be more of these notes as the story continues forth (otherwise, this chapter would never end). Maybe, if this ever gets finished, I'll compile all these types of notes together in one great lump as the last chapter of the fanfic. But, for now, I'm only going to say (for the hundredth time) _thank you_ , and stay tuned!**


	39. Part 2: Chapter 19

**A/N: "I** _ **will**_ **get out a chapter per week." -Me, 2016**

 ***Nervously starts laughing, walks over to that sentence, and then punts it off a cliff.***

 **Okay, I should probably just shut up about my update schedule, because every time I say** _ **anything**_ **about it, the time between updates just gets longer. However, that above statement** _ **is**_ **going to be my general updating goal (how well that goal will be met remains to be seen, especially if I keep putting out 9000-ish word chapters). The main issue was just that these past weeks have not been general weeks. Instead, they have been filled with testing, huge amounts of all sorts of work, and a weekend-long excursion to Indianapolis. I'm back now, though! Yay!**

* * *

Jambu had taken the Mudwings back into the walled village about, from what Clay could estimate, four hours after noon. Walking back towards the castle had been a completely different experience than walking away from it had been: The roads were now relatively clear, and there was an atmosphere of trepidation over the entire village. The few dragons that Clay _could_ see seemed to be rushing around, as if they would rather be hiding in their homes than be outside. It wasn't a question: Deathbringer had told the village about the incoming attack.

Eventually, after a short walk through this apprehensive and almost unnerving atmosphere, the Mudwings and Jambu had reached the castle, where a small group of Rainwing soldiers were waiting for them. Jambu gave a quick nod before leaving Clay's troop with the other dragons, saying something about getting some sun before marching into battle. Then there was another walk through the castle, and, finally, Clay and his family were led into the dining room. Not only was food waiting there, but Beetle, Deathbringer, and, surprisingly, Starflight were anticipating the Mudwings' arrival, too.

"Hey, everyone," Beetle greeted once Clay's troop had entered the dining hall, pushing some sort of meat from the table towards the approaching dragons. Clay and his family sat down, and the hybrid continued, "Everything's going fine. Mangrove and a good number of other Outclaws are getting ready for this operation as we speak. Mangrove has told me that he'll scout out the area around our point of escape before we attack, and that he'll report the conditions there to some other Outclaws before they fall asleep. That way, I can dreamvisit those dragons and make sure that we're not walking into a trap."

Deathbringer nodded, seemingly thinking about something else, before he supplemented, "I still doubt that Blister is going to have a significant group of dragons waiting outside our tunnel. Blister has us in her claws; a small group of escaping dragons can't change that. Besides, Blister isn't expecting us to leave the rainforest, anyways. _Glory_ will be an issue, but her priority is going to be protecting the tunnel from us for Blister's future use. Of course, neither Glory nor Blister realize how this attack is going to play out, which means there is a very good chance of us taking Glory by surprise and crushing Blister's quick attack—which is fortunate for us, but which raises some unfortunate problems for you."

Deathbringer used his head to gesture towards a map pasted on the wall, which certainly hadn't been there before; Clay hadn't noticed it because he had been eating, though. As the eldest Mudwing looked up and stared at the map, simultaneously popping what had likely been some bird into his mouth, he saw a more detailed version of the rainforest than what had the map in the war room had illustrated. Most everything displayed on the chart was drawn in dark grey, striking against the parchment's peach; however, there also were black marks, which Deathbringer told them represented Nightwing strongholds, and red marks, which Deathbringer told them represented common hangouts for the Tears of the Rain. These red marks included what appeared to be a sketchily drawn grove of crimson trees some space away from the castle, something Clay hadn't seen on the map in the war room, although it seemed to be in the same location as the massive purple region from before.

Deathbringer, still clearly distracted, lifted himself up and motioned towards the map. "Okay," he said, pointing towards the symbol on the map that Clay remembered to have marked the castle, "this is us. This," he said, as he moved his claw towards the black mark where Clay vaguely remembered the tunnel to be located, "is where Glory is, and it's where we have to go."

Beetle nodded, then, speaking up for the absentminded Deathbringer, explained, "The plan is simple. We go to where the tunnel is. The Nightwing–Rainwing combined force will temporarily wrest Glory's Tears away from it. Mangrove and a pretty decent-sized Outclaw force will be _watching_ the other side of the tunnel, but they won't _take_ it—it's too close to Blister's castle for a group of militant criminals to congregate near without raising a commotion. We'll force ourselves out of the tunnel, we'll meet up with Mangrove's group, and we'll be led to the Scorpion Den, where we'll be safe. Back here, the Nightwing–Rainwing force will _pretend_ to retreat, tricking Glory into relaxing, as she'll think that the combined force's only purpose was getting us out of here—and then the combined force will destroy the tunnel, using a completely unexpected but exceedingly effective method of destruction."

"That's the ideal situation," Deathbringer conceded, still not completely undistracted. "There are a couple problems, though. If I had to guess, most of Glory's force will be congregated _directly_ around the tunnel tonight—which is her mistake in grand scheme of things, but which also makes it very difficult for you all to actually get out of here. Our plan, I think, will be to split your group away from ours, as Glory will believe that we, the combined force, will have to get close to the tunnel in order to destroy it, so she'll force herself to concentrate on keeping us away. You won't be undefended; Jambu will be leading a couple squads of Rainwings, and he'll be right above you. And, like I said, Glory's goal will be to protect the tunnel, not to stop you all from leaving, so she'll let you go by in order to fight us off.

"Now, Mr. I'm-the-best-assassin-in-Pyrrhia will be watching the other side of this tunnel personally, I've heard—as in, he'll be hidden almost directly outside of it. Mangrove _knows_ what he's doing, and he'll take care of any Tear who tries to run out and warn Blister, so you won't have to worry about the Sandwings when you step out into the desert. Nevertheless, I still want you all to get out of here as fast as possible, mainly to minimize losses to our own forces."

Deathbringer nodded, as if affirming his own sentiments, then he looked at Clay's troop for a couple of tense seconds. Then he just sighed, shook his head, and said, "All right, I'm finished. Starflight, why don't you tell them what you came here for?"

Starflight, who had been quiet while Deathbringer had been talking, pushed himself up a little and turned his head towards Clay's troop. There was a pause; Starflight unconsciously fiddled with his necklace, looking like he was trying to find the right words to say. Finally, he carefully asked, "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"

There was another small pause where every Mudwing looked up at Clay for his response (which was only a little uncomfortable for the dragon in question). He shrugged and, ready for the worst, replied, "Let's do bad news, first."

Starflight grimaced, and said, "Okay, well, for those present who don't know, Queen Scarlet dreamvisited both Clay and Reed last night, and during that time, she implied that she wanted to change both Mudwings' personalities, and that she had nothing but confidence for her success." At this, Clay's younger siblings looked up at him and Reed with worry; Reed tensed with obvious guilt before muttering that he hadn't had the time to describe everything to the rest of the troop after his discussion with Beetle.

Starflight continued, "And there's more. When Moon first read your mind, Reed, and asked you about Scarlet, she learned something about the queen writing to you. Apparently, Scarlet told these two that she was going to 'change their entire world,' and that the implication was that it would be a quick process. At first, I chalked this up to overconfidence, but now all these factors combined are starting to make me think Scarlet was up to something much more sinister. She didn't want to put these two through a conditioning of some sort; no, I'm also certain that she wanted to use an animus to rip away these two's personalities and completely re-mold them."

The worry from Clay's siblings morphed into disbelieving shock, and Starflight wasn't even close to being done: "But that's where we have a problem. To the extent of our knowledge, Scarlet has no animus dragons. And according to every scroll I've read, _and_ according to Beetle, who knows a whole lot of information that isn't in any scroll, there hasn't been a Skywing animus for _decades_ , at the very _least_. And even if Scarlet _does_ , past all improbabilities, have a hidden animus, I doubt that she would waste that dragon's precious sanity on changing two Mudwings into her personal killers, when she _could_ just use that animus to, you know, kill dragons directly.

"But, like I told Clay earlier today, there could be a certain alternative to an animus dragon that Scarlet could use, and she could just not understand its full potential. Now, this comes from _exceedingly_ obscure legends, but it's the _only_ thing that Scarlet could replace an animus with." Starflight shuddered the smallest bit, as if the pure thought of what he was about to say terrified him, and it clearly took him a whole lot of effort to articulate his next sentence: "She could have Darkstalker's scroll."

There was a bit of puzzled silence from the Mudwings, which was interrupted by Deathbringer. He mumbled, as if trying to convince himself of his words as much as any other dragon, "I still can't believe such a thing exists, Starflight. Yes, I realize that Darkstalker was a real and very powerful animus Nightwing, but an all-powerful magic _scroll_? I don't think our history scrolls would forget about something that could make a dragon instantly become a queen or—"

"Darkstalker's scroll could do _so much more_ than that," Starflight interrupted, almost shaking as "Darkstalker" left him, as if the name alone horrified him. "It could erase any dragon's free will and then change him or her into _anything_. It could give any dragon any power imaginable—including immortality. Scarlet could raise herself up to the power of a god, and then she could force everyone else to be her mindless, loyal slaves. She wouldn't need to work with Blister or Coral—she could _control_ them; she could give every queen in Pyrrhia the mind of a dumb beast, and then keep them all as a collection of _pets_. She could rule the world without opposition, and she could do it without any hint of effort."

"Exactly," Deathbringer replied, distantly. "If Scarlet had this scroll, we'd already be dead—or worse."

"Hang on," Clay said, now stuck in between the clear panic of Starflight and the clear doubt of Deathbringer, trying to clear his mind and figure everything out—not a very successful endeavor. "What exactly _is_ this thing!?"

"There was an exceedingly powerful Nightwing, Darkstalker," Starflight elaborated, trying his best to keep the words coming out strong. "He was an animus, a mind-reader, an all-seeing prophesier—and later, he turned into a monster, corrupted by his own power. Legends tell us that he was eventually 'sealed away'—and if that's not ominous, the thought that Darkstalker could come back one day, I don't know what is. But, anyway, some very obscure legends, like I've said, also tell us that Darkstalker had found a way to emulate animus powers with a scroll. Any dragon with this scroll would have the power of an animus at their talons, with the added benefit of never losing any sanity, the normal check against the overuse of animus magic."

"So Scarlet, if she has this scroll, can do anything to us, without wasting any animus's soul," Reed stated, slinking down a little as he started, along with the rest of the Mudwings in the room, to comprehend Starflight's earlier outburst. "She could—"

"She could make you kill yourselves if she wanted to," Starflight said, "and she could make you enjoy it. She could turn you into a completely loyal servant and then make you murder your own siblings without hesitation. She could make you feel pain forever—and make you immortal at the same time, so that the pain would _never_ stop _._ She could turn you into a scavenger, a cow, or even a small chicken, and then eat you as a quick snack. She could turn you into an ant and crush you with the flick of a talon. She could do _anything_ to you, and she wouldn't be limited by anyone's sanity, only her sadistic imagination."

There was a terrified silence among the Mudwings, and then Beetle said, quietly, but not powerlessly, "If it's any consolation, I'm with Deathbringer: I can't believe that this is the case. I mean, there isn't even any _factual_ evidence about this scroll even _existing_. Plus, Deathbringer's right. If Scarlet _did_ have this thing, then we _would_ all be dead. I think a more likely explanation for this situation is a normal animus of some sort, be it a Skywing one we've never heard of or some dragon from a different tribe who's simply selling his or her services. That being said, it's still incredibly worrying, and Starflight brought up a good point: Why would Scarlet waste that animus's limited sanity on turning you two into killers when that _animus_ could just do whatever the queen wanted? It's bewildering, but we'll look into it once we're out of here."

Deathbringer nodded at this. Starflight looked like he wanted to retort, but Deathbringer muttered, before the scientist had a chance, "Starflight, didn't you say that you had _good_ news?"

Starflight still seemed awfully pessimistic—he was still shaking his head the smallest bit—but he rose again (when Starflight had fallen, Clay hadn't really noticed; he had kinda been busy worrying about Scarlet doing something like _ending the world_ ), and he looked straight at Clay. Starflight paused, and Clay noticed the familiar guilt injecting itself into his posture again. Then the Nightwing said, a bit timidly, "I managed to procure some armor for you, Clay. It'll only be a small thing, but it'll cover your back, and it's designed to absorb a good majority of the shock from impacts; your back won't be such a glaring weak spot when you wear it. I felt that I owed you that much."

Starflight stopped, looked down, and fumbled with his necklace again, before he muttered, after a second of silence, "I've done a whole lot of evil, and I know that. I shouldn't have brought you here in the first place. I should have freed your siblings the second after Beetle dreamvisited Deathbringer, and… I'm sorry. I know that sometimes I just get too excitable and I just… I just forget about doing what's right."

Starflight kept his eyes down, and yet when he said, "I really am sorry," Clay heard absolute sincerity in it. He heard the caring Nightwing he had seen with Fatespeaker that morning, that Nightwing who seemed to only lose himself in his work, and who wasn't _completely_ evil. He heard the Nightwing who wasn't anywhere close to perfect, but who could have turned out a whole lot worse. Clay couldn't not accept the dragon's apology.

"And no one even had to convince him to say that," Deathbringer muttered after this, earning a sudden irritated look from Starflight. Deathbringer responded by turning his head to the scientist, a mischievous grin plastered on his face. "Which is a _good_ thing."

Starflight just shot Deathbringer another irritated look, and then turned towards Clay and stated, stuck between annoyance and the smallest hint of humor, "It should be ready for you after you wake up."

"Wait, we're going to sleep?" Crane asked from behind Clay.

"Oh, yeah," Beetle replied. "You're going to need all the rest you can get. It's going to be a _very_ long night."

"Huh," Reed muttered. "That doesn't seem familiar."

* * *

"Clay, can I talk with you?"

This sentence was followed by a low rumble of thunder, coming from some distant storm, perhaps. Clay slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring, through darkness, at a wall. Apparently, the Mudwing had positioned himself towards it; he remembered falling asleep early that afternoon with his eyes on his siblings, taking them in for what he desperately hoped wouldn't be the last time.

Someone had called him awake, and the voice had been familiar. Clay rolled over, looking for who he knew was the voice's owner: Beetle, who he found not near his own side, but at Reed's. She was gently muttering something in Clay's brother's ear, nudging him awake. Reed twitched, his eyes slowly opened, and then he was dragged upright, only half-awake, by Beetle.

"Is it time to get ready?" Clay mumbled, standing up with fatigue, stretching his just-awoken muscles, feeling his back give nothing more than a small twinge. Both the rainforest outside and the room around them were dark; the attack had to be coming relatively quickly. But Beetle didn't seem to be waking up Clay's troop to prepare for it; instead, she was dragging Reed, and only Reed, towards the exit of the room, motioning for Clay, and only Clay, to follow.

"No. I just need to talk," Beetle replied as she gestured, quietly, as to not wake the rest of Clay's siblings. The hybrid stepped outside the Mudwings' room without further explanation, and then, Clay and Reed groggily following, towards her own. The three dragons slipped into another simple and unassuming room, although there were no windows, a candle providing a small amount of light, and only one bed in Beetle's temporary room. Clay noticed that the bed in question looked very messy, almost like it had been ripped apart, and that the Outclaw's sack with her dreamvisitor inside laid on top of it—perhaps Beetle had hidden her bag inside the bed for safekeeping. The Mudwing didn't dedicate focus to anything else in the room; he was still waking up, and Beetle was beginning to talk, asking for attention.

"Okay," Beetle said, no longer in a whisper, moving over to the bag on her bed, her head craned so that the Mudwings could hear her speech. "Look guys, there are two huge problems that have been worrying me ever since we sent you all to bed. The first issue of mine is that I have _no idea_ what Blister thinks she's doing." Beetle had made it to her bag, and took the time to fully turn towards Clay and Reed before saying, "Because Mangrove's told me that she isn't doing _anything_."

Another distant roll of thunder echoed throughout the rainforest—awfully fitting, Clay felt. "Well, the dragons who Mangrove reported to and who I've dreamvisited have told me that," Beetle corrected, "but the point still stands: Mangrove didn't see anything notable around Blister's castle, and that included no army-raising, which means Blister is just _sitting_ in her castle. This means that she's either being completely idiotic and really _is_ choreographing her attack, or she's planned something completely unexpected—and she _has_ to be doing the latter. I don't like not knowing what Blister is doing, and running past her castle now makes me uncomfortable, although, mainly, it's caused by my over-paranoia.

"Plus, that's not my main concern—I've taken worse risks than running past Blister, and I'm sure that you Mudwings are all absolutely _sick_ of this rainforest, and that you don't care about some 'uncomfortable' worry of mine. My main concern, actually, is that we're just going to get in the way of the dragons destroying the tunnel tonight. Deathbringer's repeatedly told me not to worry, and that everything's just fine, but I can't stop thinking about it. This offensive doesn't have to be bloody, you two; it could be a very quick strike. But with us here, they're all going to have to stall for longer, which means more dragons are going to die. I don't know if we want that."

Clay hadn't exactly thought about that. Dragons might have _already_ died for him, as a quick flash back to Peaksoarer reminded the Mudwing, and now Clay was being forced to realize that others might soon be added that list. Clay didn't _want_ dragons to die for him. If there was another option, where dragons didn't have to die, Clay wanted to take it.

Of course, _was_ there even another option?

Reed was apparently having similar thoughts. "So, you're suggesting we run past Scarlet's blockade?" he asked, carefully, clearly not liking the idea, and clearly not liking the fact that he believed he already knew the answer.

Beetle paused, looked at Reed, and then she shook her head and said, "Not necessarily. Look, you two have been through so much that you don't deserve. You're both sweet, kind, loyal, strong-hearted, and you can even be funny, every once in a while. You _deserve_ to be led back to safety."

At this, Beetle pulled open her bag and started rummaging through it, causing both Mudwings to take a glance towards each other while Beetle continued. "And the thing is, I don't know if running past Scarlet is even an option. I am _not_ going to suggest a suicide mission when we've got a much safer option right next to us. Plus, running off what I've already said, I kinda think part of Deathbringer _wants_ us to stall the attack. He's been mumbling about killing Glory and destroying the Tears of the Rain all day, which means that he'll want the fight to drag on so that Glory's forced to expose herself. And it's not just him; all the dragons in this attack know what they're getting into, they all want to fight, and they're all ready for whatever may come.

"But that all being said, I don't want to waste life when we could just sneak past Scarlet and out of here—however, again, I don't know if that's practical. All of us here have tried our hardest to sound smart, but, in reality, we don't know a _thing_ about this attack. Even among the _Outclaws_ , we don't know a lot about this attack. All of us can only estimate how many Skywings are actually out there, and we can only estimate where they're actually congregated at. Three Moons, I don't even know who's _leading_ this blockade.

"Which is why I called you two awake," Beetle said, pulling out her dreamvisitor from the recesses of her bag. Clay suddenly had a very good idea of what Beetle was about to say, causing the slightest twist through the stomach. "You see, the Outclaws have got plenty of Skywings spying on Scarlet, but I've never met any, so I can't dreamvisit them and learn anything about this blockade. Therefore, I can't even _think_ about what we might or might not want to do. But you two didn't just meet an Outclaw correspondent—you met the Princess, _the_ closest Outclaw to Scarlet. Now, I didn't know who would want to talk to her, so—"

"Clay," Reed interrupted, automatically; the dragon in question had no reason to disagree, other than because of what had to be irrational nerves sneaking their way inside of him.

Clay took a breath, and then he stepped forward and held out his claw. Beetle held the dreamvisitor above it, quickly stating, as she stared Clay straight in the eyes, "All right, ask the Princess about the Skywing blockade, about what Blister's doing, and about anything else that you might be able to get out of her. You're the only chance of getting information out of her before we go on this offensive, so make sure to learn as much as you can, all right?"

"Um, sure," Clay said, a bit overwhelmed, distracted by a realization about how truly nervous he was about seeing Peril again. What in Pyrrhia would the Skywing do when she saw him? Would she burst out into happiness? Sorrow? Or would she just be sort of emotionless and reserved, like she had been before? And how was _he_ supposed to feel in Peril's presence? Clay was pretty sure he had this notion of romantic love at least somewhat down, after all he had seen in the rainforest—but what would happen if he _didn't_ feel that notion of love that he was just starting to understand with Peril?

Then the dreamvisitor was dropped into the Mudwing's claw before he could think anymore. Clay took one last look at his brother and Beetle, and then he closed his eyes. He thought of the name "Peril," visualizing the copper-scaled Skywing, and then there was suddenly a shift in everything: temperature, humidity, the atmosphere, and even what had felt like a shift in position.

Clay opened his eyes and had one more thought: _Something absolutely terrible is about to happen._

Which was strange, really. Nothing was _here_ ; everything was just a black, blank, forever expanding plane—except for the hourglasses. They clashed intensely with the rest of Peril's dream, and they were absolutely huge, situated at what Clay thought might be the four compass directions (were there compass directions in dreams?). They almost looked like a background image, like they weren't really there, and were instead just an illusion. When Clay shifted, nothing about them changed—Clay couldn't seem to get any farther away from or any closer to them, no matter how he moved. Pouring down the huge timers were what looked like large waterfalls, comprised entirely of sand. These hourglasses, however, didn't make the sound of sand falling. They made the sound of fire burning.

Clay turned his head away from where it had been, searching for Peril. After a second, he glimpsed her to his right. The fiery Skywing was apprehensively pacing back and forth in a specific area, as if there was a line drawn somewhere, and she was afraid of crossing it. Farther away from her was another non-black thing: what looked like a group of dragons, huddled in a group. As Clay stepped closer, he started to make out that group's features. All of them were terrified-looking dragons, almost certainly Skywings. One of them was male, one of them was female, and one of them was a small dragonet. They just were a family.

Peril didn't notice Clay as he approached; she seemed more focused on the family of Skywings farther away from her. As Clay got closer, he noticed that the family appeared to be covered in what looked like fine, black dust, and that this black dust appeared to be surrounding the group in an even radius. There wasn't dust around Peril, though, nor was it anywhere else in the dream. The Skywing champion seemed to be frightened of approaching the powder, actually: As Clay was almost next to her, Peril suddenly took a step forward, as if she was going to do something like rush forward towards the group of Skywings, and then she halted, stepping back, shaking her head in what looked like frustration.

Peril then almost backed into Clay; Clay moved himself out of her way and positioned himself next to the Skywing, on the same side where her scar ripped into her scales. Just trying to get her attention, he said, "Peril?"

Peril jerked her backwards movements to a stop, then she turned, slowly, and glanced over at Clay, looking more confused than anything. "Clay?" she asked, after she had gotten a good view of the Mudwing, her confusion never faltering to be replaced by happiness or sorrow or any real readable emotion. She did seem, however, to lose part of her tense state as she continued, "You generally aren't in my dreams."

"Uh, okay?" Clay replied, not really knowing how to respond to Peril's comment, shifting a little bit as he positioned himself in a more comfortable position. The Skywing champion followed Clay's every movement with her fiery eyes, scanning his entire body. She then glanced back at where Clay had come from before she began to look like she was ready for an actual conversation. There didn't appear to be much of that familiar aversion in her anymore, just bewilderment—but Peril also didn't know that Clay was Clay, and not Dream Clay.

"Yeah," the champion replied, subtly craning her head, as if Clay might be a mirage that would disappear in a different light. "I mean, if I just had a dream about you, I wouldn't be too surprised. Even though I won't _die_ without you or anything like that, I _do_ miss you, and I _do_ miss having someone actually making me feel like a dragon, although, lately, there have been all sorts of things to distract me from that. But _this_ dream is recurring, and I've never had anyone _ever_ come into it with me. And I also, um, haven't ever had a huge stone room suddenly appear like it was forcibly wedged into this dream, either."

Clay looked back at where he had come from, seeing the room where he had been—no, wait, was? (Three Moons, this was confusing.)—wedged into the blankness of Peril's dream, like how Scarlet had wedged her throne room into Clay's. The Mudwing shook his head and explained, "Look, Peril, I'm not part of your dream. I'm using a dreamvisitor to talk with you—it lets any other dragon invade another's dream. So, um, I'm the real Clay. Really." Clay held up the dreamvisitor, hoping Peril would believe him easier if he showed her his proof of authenticity.

Peril blinked, then nervously took a step away from Clay, although the Mudwing saw a purpose in Peril's action that kept her away from the black powder. "Oh," she said, looking the slightest bit embarrassed and definitely more averted now. She took a look back at the room Clay had emerged from, swallowed, and then said, "Uh, hi?"

This led to a rather awkward pause, and Clay, unknowing about what to say next, just asked, somewhat lamely, "So, uh, this dream is recurring?"

"Yeah," the Skywing replied, clearly trying to throw away some of the aversion that had been so present in her before. "The dragons over there, they're in the middle of some huge field of extremely flammable powder. If I even _step_ near them, they go up in flames and die. But if I don't do anything, and the time runs out in the hourglasses, the powder catches on fire, anyways. I _know_ that there's a way to save them, _somehow_ , but I just don't know _what_ to do, and I've never been able to figure it out.

"It's… I mean, it's not a _good_ dream, but it's better than the dreams where I watch dragons burn to death underneath my talons, or where I see dragons scream at me because I'm the reason their mates or children are dead, or where the dragons I've killed come back for vengeance and kill me, torture me, or pull me down into hell itself, or the ones where Scarlet decides that she's had enough of me, which vary from me getting speared or, lately, shot through the heart and then bleeding to death, to me being forced underwater and drowning because I can't evaporate the liquid fast enough, to the nonsensical ones where Scarlet will just claw me herself, and rip off my limbs or my head, and where she'll taunt me and she'll laugh and she'll—" Peril suddenly forced her words to an end by closing her mouth and shaking her head, as if to bite off, shake, and kill her chain of words.

"Peril—" Clay started, wanting to somehow comfort her, before Peril, the same Peril who had been terrified for her life the night Scarlet had unveiled the crossbow, interrupted.

"I know I shouldn't be scared of dying," Peril said, more miserable than frightened. "I know that I probably _deserve_ to die—"

"Peril," interjected Clay, worried about the sudden, almost suicidal words coming from the Skywing. "You don't deserve to die."

Peril shuffled, looking uncomfortable, before saying, "Clay, thank you, but… you have _no idea_ what I do in the arena."

"So I've heard," Clay replied, unable to completely force deadpan sarcasm away from his still concerned words. He couldn't help but be surprised at how _unchanged_ Peril was. She had seemed to have almost progressed when she had opened up to him in the Sky Kingdom, but now it was back to wondering if Peril would run away during the middle of a conversation again—although, there wasn't anywhere for her to run away to, this time.

"But you _don't_ ," Peril responded, still visibly uncomfortable. "I go in there and I kill whoever Scarlet tells me to, no questions asked. Yeah, I don't make a show about it anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm a professional murderer. What kind of a dragon does that make me, Clay? How am I supposed to call myself an Outclaw if I kill a dragon every other week?"

Clay paused; yes, the two sides of Peril did seem contradictory. But even though Clay didn't truly know the extent of Peril's bad, the dragon who had saved and his and Reed's lives couldn't be a complete monster. Clay, knowing this, tried to support Peril, saying, "But you hate that, don't you? I mean, that's what you told me, so you're not completely terrible. I mean, yes, the fact that you regularly kill dragons is not exactly a good addition to your personality, but that doesn't mean you're, like, doomed to a life of evil or—"

"Sometimes I think you _are_ Obsidian, just reincarnated," Peril interrupted, imbuing her voice with what sounded like some sort of fear. "You say _the exact same things_ that he did."

Clay blinked; he had almost forgotten about Obsidian, with everything else going on. Peril seemed to notice Clay's hesitation, and added, "I'm not saying you're like him, Clay." Then there was a pause, and a much softer, "I really hope you're not like him; I hope that you, at least, weren't trying to use kindness to control me, like he did."

"I'd never," Clay stated, gently, yet forcibly. He only realized the subtext, that unquestionable declaration of loyalty, that the sentence was embedded with after it had left. Peril caught that subtext and gave Clay a quick, heartfelt smile, which almost made her entire presence change. In that moment, Peril looked so much more complete, so much more confident, so much _better_ than when she would just hang her head and run.

Clay smiled back, which only made Peril's rare smile grow larger, filling her further. Clay knew that he felt _something_ in that moment, although _what_ —that was harder to pinpoint.

Then the smiles faded, and Clay, not especially wanting to hurt Peril but not wanting her to remain ignorant about her first love, said, "Um, Peril, I've actually found out something about Obsidian. Other than lying to you, he also murdered every dragon in the Rainwing hatchery, which is why he left the rainforest, and he also indirectly created a terrorist group that has the unifying goal of killing every Rainwing in Pyrrhia."

There was a second of shock, and then Peril's posture transformed into rage. "Oh, _of course_ ," Peril muttered, furious, slashing her tail against the black ground, somehow turning the ground where she struck a blood-red shade. The Skywing mumbled something Clay wasn't sure he wanted to hear, and then Peril, looking up as if remembering something, suddenly continued, "Clay, I found something out, too. I know why Scarlet wanted you and Reed."

"She wanted to make us thrilling killers, I know," Clay replied. "And she wanted to change our entire personalities in order to do that."

Peril took another step back, presumably surprised at everything Clay knew, but then she regained herself, and added, "She didn't just want to do that. She wanted to turn you into _Rainwing_ assassins."

It took about a second for the bewildered panic to start sinking in. "What?" Clay asked; turning him and his brother loyal to Scarlet was at least _possible_ , but to turn him and his brother into _Rainwings_ seemed _completely impossible_! No, Clay realized—it seemed like something that could only be done through the use of an _animus_ , just like Starflight had warned.

Peril shook her head, showing as much confusion as Clay was feeling. "Look," she replied, taking a few quick glances around, as if she wasn't safe, even within her own dream, "I _heard_ Scarlet talking with another dragon, named," Peril suddenly stopped, looking fearful again, before she harshly, as if forcing the speaking of the name, said, " _Soar_ , and Scarlet started saying that she wanted to make you two female, and that she wanted to erase your memories of your home, and that she wanted to make you both Rainwings."

Clay was now focused on trying to keep his cool and not _completely_ freak out, but he still managed, "Soar? As in, like, flying through the sky kind of soar?" Peril nodded, and Clay continued, not knowing any other possibility for this dragon's purpose to theorize about, "Peril, do you think this Soar could be an animus?"

Peril tapped the ground, clearly nervous about even saying anything, before she managed, "He _has_ to be an animus. No one I've ever talked to knows much about him, though; all I've ever heard about him is his name. I think, if he is an animus, Scarlet is purposely keeping him hidden from _everyone_ for use as her secret weapon. And I think she wants to keep him away from me more than others, due to us both being powerful dragons who might, together, work against and then overthrow her. I mean, I once innocently _asked_ about him, and Scarlet almost killed me, giving me this during the process." Peril turned and showed Clay her scar, lowering her head in a silent apology about not being of more help—although just knowing about the existence of "Soar" helped significantly, and, at least, it looked like Starflight's theory about that terrifying scroll wasn't true.

Clay told Peril these sentiments, and Peril nodded, and then there was a bit of a nervous pause again. Finally, Clay asked, trying to think, "But _why_ would Scarlet want to do that to us?"

Peril didn't hesitate this time; the answer here seemed to be thought out. She replied, "Well, part of it is that she wants Rainwings for use as toys, but it also has to be because she wants to stay on even terms, compete, even, with Blister. The Sandwing Queen has had a personal assassin ever since Mangrove, you know, although none of them last very long, so she has to keep finding new ones. That being said, Scarlet doesn't have _any_ major or consistent assassin program; she wants to change that, and she wanted you and Reed to be her first additions into that scheme."

Clay was quickly realizing that he did not especially want to be changed into a Rainwing, and especially one only living to kill for Scarlet—he was pretty happy with being a Mudwing and actually having _free will_ —and he found himself shuddering from the very idea. Peril must have seen this, because, in a surprising move from her, she took one step closer and comforted, "But, for all Scarlet's talk, she'll never be able to touch you if you keep near the Outclaws and away from her. I presume you're still with the Outclaws—actually, now that I'm thinking about it, where exactly _are_ you, and how'd you get some animus-touched dreamvisitor?"

"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you that," Clay murmured, coarsely reminded of why he was even here in the first place. Clay gave a quick summary of his past few days: Beetle, the Outclaw's dreamvisitor, and he was talking about the journey to the rainforest when Peril, who had realized where Clay's story was heading, suddenly interrupted.

"You're _in_ the rainforest?" Peril interposed. "Clay, Blister's going to destroy the rainforest in, I don't know, a couple days, maybe? You can't stay there."

"We know," Clay replied, at the same time feeling relieved that the Nightwing-and-Rainwing-made theories about Blister's intentions seemed to be true; although, why Blister would wait "a couple days" lined up with all the sentiments coming from Beetle: It didn't make sense.

"We know that this whole blockade is just meant to keep the Nightwings and Mudwings from helping each other," Clay explained, to Peril's affirmative nod. "The Nightwings know that too, and they're going to try and stop Blister's attack. Then they'll combine with the Mudwings and the Outclaws in order to defend their home. But the thing is, _we_ need to get out—"

"Well, you're can't just fly out," Peril interjected, before Clay even had the chance to get into pretense about the Nightwings' tunnel. "Clay, almost our entire army is gone and surrounding the rainforest, and Blister and Coral are covering the parts that our army can't cover. I mean, this attack is _so_ big—oh, what did Osprey tell me…?" Peril took a moment to stop and think, and then stated, "Ninety-three percent of our army is gone, I believe."

" _Ninety-three percent?_ " Clay asked, incredulous. _Ninety-three_ percent!? That was _beyond_ stupid! That was _beyond_ overconfident! Eighty-five percent was a huge enough force already; ninety-three was nothing short of _crazy_! That meant Scarlet had practically no force _whatsoever_ in her kingdom! What in Pyrrhia was she _doing!?_

"We're not defenseless," Peril said, responding to Clay's thoughts. "Blister has dispatched Sandwings here to keep Scarlet protected. Coral has promised support, and her plan is to attack Moorhen after her Seawings get here in order to distract your queen from attacking us. And then there are, _apparently_ , the Icewings, who are supposed to be here by the day after tomorrow as our second wave of defense."

It took a moment for that to sink in and for Clay to ask, "The _Icewings_?" The dragons in the war room had all based their guesses around Glacier _not_ being involved with Blister, and now Peril was telling Clay the exact opposite. Perhaps Glacier actually, for some unheard-of reason, _did_ want Moorhen destroyed. Or, perhaps, Glacier simply wanted to protect her tribe from her neighbors down south.

"I don't _know_ ," Peril said, hopelessly, shaking her head. "Look, Blister hates me; she thinks I should have been killed a long time ago, and that my life just represents Scarlet's distrust of her. Coral is terrified of me; I think she believes that I'll kill her or her princess just for a quick giggle if I ever get bored. And Scarlet's starting to despise me, too, because I'm 'not thrilling enough.' Therefore, I was not let into the discussions at our recent summit, so I don't know _a lot_ about these attacks. But I was able to dig up some things, and from them, I've learned that Blister supposedly has a plan in place that'll persuade Glacier to her side—'an offer Glacier couldn't refuse,' one dragon told me was said, which, yes, sounds really, _really_ bad."

It did sound "really, _really_ bad." Clay wanted to say or ask _something_ , but Peril continued before he could think of anything. When she spoke, she spoke as if she had to push the words out: "But that's nowhere near the worst of it."

Peril paused, took a breath, then continued, "Scarlet, for obvious reasons—the fact that she's basically trusting her life to her allies, mainly—was not too ecstatic about this idea. She knows that she's making herself vulnerable not only to Moorhen, but also to our allies, if they ever decide to turn against us. Scarlet has her elite guard around her all the time now, and she refuses to let any Sandwing who isn't one of Blister's generals inside the actual inner palace. And there's still an _insane_ amount of trust going on here: If Blister really wanted to, although I doubt she will, she could turn on us and destroy Scarlet's reign, because we just don't have an army close enough to the palace to defend against her.

"There's only one reason why Scarlet agreed to this. Blister has promised that the Skywings around the rainforest would be free to leave after a few days, as 'the destruction of the Nightwings will be exceedingly rapid.' And if, through some unseen factor, the Nightwings manage to put up a bigger fight than Blister has anticipated, like you say they can, then Blister will switch to her backup plan: Kill Moorhen within the next week and force the Mudwings to our side, which will allow us to leave the rainforest, anyways."

Clay's body froze. He _felt_ his limbs shut down. He _felt_ the his heart sink and his mind explode, and he couldn't do anything except stammer. Then the paralysis left, and Clay shouted, " _What!?"_

The next _week_!? Blister could have had the best soldiers, the best assassins, or even the best army in Pyrrhia, but Moorhen couldn't be killed in a _week_! Three Moons, _the entire world_ could turn on the Mudwings, but there was _no way in Pyrrhia_ Moorhen could be killed and the entire Mudwing tribe could be forced under Blister's control _a week_ into war!

Peril grimaced, and reiterated, "Blister has promised Scarlet that if she somehow couldn't destroy the Nightwings quickly, that she'd 'get rid of Moorhen and her family of heirs instead.' I don't understand it either, Clay; there's _no way_ Blister can do what she's saying she can in the amount of time she's promised. But it's not only Blister who believes that this is possible; Scarlet seems confident that this plan will work, too. And Coral—I don't know what happened with Coral. I didn't see her the entire time she was here, but from what I've heard, she acted completely normal—until about halfway through 'private negotiations.'

"Only royalty is allowed into those meetings, so I only have hints. But from what I've got, Coral was acting completely unlike herself. Vermilion let it slip that 'she wouldn't ever stop _yelling_ ,' and Scarlet was mumbling about Coral acting like 'nothing but a baby,' and that she was 'throwing fits all the time, acting like a dragonet.' Coral doesn't act like that, especially around Scarlet, due a rather deep grudge Coral has with us, and the Seawing Queen also generally doesn't dissolve into _ranting_ —but, from what I've heard, _something_ happened that changed that. Three Moons, I think Scarlet mumbled something about Coral yelling at _Blister_ , the Seawing Queen's most important and most trusted ally. And then Coral just _left,_ taking her Seawings with her; she made a deal with Blister and Scarlet, I think, and then she was gone before Scarlet even gave her leave from the kingdom."

Clay was now being overwhelmed; he didn't want to have to worry about Coral along with _everything else he was already worrying about._ Clay just closed his eyes, cleared his mind, and, now fairly convinced that leaving the rainforest in a way that did not involve the animus tunnel would fall under the category of "way too dangerous," asked, "Three Moons, anything else horrifying we should know?" Then, remembering Beetle's earlier words, he added, "Like, who's leading your blockade?"

"That's Ruby," Peril replied, matter-of-factly. "Three Moons, Scarlet practically _threw_ her out of the kingdom. Our queen's getting nervous, Clay—she _knows_ that dragons in our kingdom don't want a war anymore than the dragons in yours, and she's _very_ well aware that support for her is starting to shift towards her daughter. But killing Ruby is going to put Scarlet in an extremely tight spot; she'd have no more heirs. Plus, it was almost certain that Ruby couldn't kill Scarlet, so our queen didn't have to worry about Ruby taking the throne. And then that all changed when Scarlet brought the crossbow here.

"Now, Ruby could acquire a crossbow and simply shoot Scarlet, killing her with ease—that is, if another dragon didn't do it first—and Ruby would become queen by default. To prevent that, Scarlet sent Ruby off to war, where she's far enough away and in just enough danger for dragons to think against killing our current queen, but also where Scarlet doesn't need to be truly worried about losing her last heir—dragons aren't going to kill their only chance for peace."

Peril stopped here, and Clay nodded, trying to take and hold everything coming from the Skywing for Beetle's use. Clay couldn't find anything left to talk about, and, as much as he didn't want to see Peril overcome with sadness as he left again, Clay knew that he had to get back to the rainforest. He stood with Peril for a few more seconds, then, breaking away from her, said, "Well, _thank you_ , really, but I have to go. Since we clearly can't sneak past Scarlet, we're going to have to take another route, and that means we have to leave soon."

Peril just nodded; Clay sighed, feeling guilty about leaving her again. He tried to be optimistic, saying, "Hey, save that family for me, okay?"

"I'm starting to think it's impossible," Peril muttered, half-turning away from Clay in order to examine the Skywing family again.

"They're not bound, are they?" Clay asked, suddenly having an idea. He looked back out towards the family and found that he was right; they weren't. Clay turned back to Peril and questioned, "Why not just persuade them to come to you?"

Peril replied, without hesitation and almost with anger, "Who would listen to _me_ , Clay?"

It was a complete blockade from any further conversation on the topic. Clay saw that, so he just sighed and turned his dreamvisitor in his claws, somehow knowing how to leave the dream despite never actually being told. But before Clay could leave, before he resigned himself to leave Peril to despairingly continue to never save the family in front of her, he added, "Hey, this is your dream. You can make them listen. I mean," Clay added, a bit jokingly, "you are the Princess, after all."

Peril's details started fading away, but Clay saw her glance back at him one more time, giving him a look the Mudwing couldn't read. The whole dream was blurring—the hourglasses, the family, the powder—but Clay got one final look at Peril. She was slowly turning back around and staring back at the family, no longer pacing, just in thought.

And then Peril was gone, and Clay was staring at his brother and Beetle.

* * *

There was another roll of thunder; nature apparently wanted to add to the ominous feelings floating around in the room. The sound seemed louder than it had before Clay had gone into Peril's dream; it was starting to sound like they were going to have to attack the Tears of the Rain during a downpour. Clay wasn't too worried about that, though—not now. He was more focused on the other dragons in the room: Beetle, slowly pacing back and forth, and Reed, nervously twiddling his talons. Eventually, Clay's brother tentatively broke the silence: "So, let me get this straight. Princess Ruby is down here—"

"Which isn't _too_ surprising," Beetle muttered, clearly locked in thought as she turned, continuing her pacing.

"—and Scarlet wants to use an animus named Soar to turn us into Rainwings—"

"Better than the alternative of the all-powerful scroll," Beetle muttered again, as if every topic Reed brought up elicited a response, "but still horrifying, considering that Scarlet _does_ apparently have a personal animus. We're going to have to seriously look into this Soar once we're out of here."

"—yeah, and the Icewings are apparently going to join Blister's coalition—"

"Which, again, isn't _too_ odd. I can understand Glacier supporting Blister. She might just want to protect her tribe, and I can't fault her for that. This 'offer she can't refuse,' though— _that's_ worrying."

"—and, finally, our entire tribe is supposed to be dead in a couple of weeks."

" _That's_ what's bad," Beetle murmured. Although some dramatic thunder would have fit, none of it sounded.

"Technically, I think it's only Moorhen and the royal family who are supposed to die," Clay supplied. Reed gave his brother a "well, that makes everything just _dandy_ then, doesn't it?" look, and Clay mumbled, "Of course, that doesn't make it any better, since all of our tribe will then be under Blister's control."

"Still, I'm wondering how Blister plans to do this," Beetle said, stopping her pacing to look at Clay. "You were right when you said that it's fairly impossible for someone as important as Queen Moorhen to get killed a week into a war. There are ways for it to happen, though, and I have suspicions. This thing about Coral," Beetle suddenly transitioned, "tell me it again."

Clay did, and then Beetle shook her head, beginning to pace again. Clay thought he heard some murmurs from the hybrid, although he didn't make any out. After a minute, though, she spoke up, and said, "Guys, what one thing makes Coral, a, generally, fairly controlled dragon, _very_ mad?"

"Her lack of female babies?" Reed guessed.

"Exactly," the hybrid affirmed, to Clay's surprise—he had thought it would have been something less obvious. The eldest Mudwing had a quick thought that maybe Scarlet had done something like hitting Coral in that weak spot, which had soured the Seawing Queen, before Beetle said something else and completely tore those sentiments away: "Coral might have acted like the Princess said she did because Blister and Scarlet wanted her to hurt her own princess—and the only reason they'd do that is so Coral would unleash her greatest weapon, something that could _easily_ kill Moorhen within a couple weeks."

 _Now_ there was a loud crack of dramatic thunder—just on time, too. The noise faded, then Reed managed, weakly, through the deathly silence, "Coral's greatest weapon? Which is... what, powered by the princess of the Seawings?"

"No," Beetle stated, staring Reed, then Clay, in the eyes. "Princess Anemone _is_ Coral's greatest weapon." Beetle took the time to pause before saying, "Princess Anemone is an animus."

* * *

 **A/N: Clay's having a very long day, isn't he?**

 **Anyway, there's not going to be a discussion about characters or the setting today. But (jumping to a completely different topic) did you see those _dashes_? Those _actual_ dashes? I had to copy and paste them into the document, but that's okay, because now I don't have to represent dashes with "space hyphen space!"**

 **Which brings us to what I really wanted to talk about here. One of these days, I'm going to go through some of my older chapters and fix some grammar issues (mainly issues with colons and multiple-paragraphs-of-dialogue quotation marks, and I'm gonna put actual dashes in for all my representative dashes, too), maybe add some extra detail into some places, and maybe re-word some other things. During this time, there's a chance a chapter might "disappear." If that happens, it didn't actually disappear. I just combined it with another chapter to fix what I saw as a minor pace issue. I'm not positive that I'm even going to do this, but if it happens, that's why. Just a heads-up.**

 **Anyways, thank you all for being patient with my unpredictable update schedule, and (hopefully) see you soon!**


	40. The Very Belated Update Chapter

**Me, April 24, 2016: "Anyways, thank you all for being patient with my unpredictable update schedule, and (hopefully) see you soon!"**

" **And (hopefully) see you soon."**

" **See you soon."**

" **Soon."**

" _ **Soon**_ **."**

 **...Yeah. That didn't work out very well, did it?**

 **So… excuses. I have them. I don't think you want to hear them, though, so I won't bother. It doesn't really matter, anyways: I'm sure that, if you're here, what you really care about is Part 2, Chapter 20 of** _ **The Dragonets Aren't Coming.**_ **And again, I'm going to have to disappoint. Yes, this is one of** _ **those**_ **chapters. You know the ones—the huge author's update chapter of doom, the type of writing FanFiction forbids but that everybody does anyways. And yes, I understand how stupidly, incredibly, imcomprehenisvely frustrating this has to be for the people out there who have been waiting for around a year now for a new update—to only be cruelly** _ **teased**_ **about the newest chapter that seems like it will** _ **never**_ **come.**

 **But let me at least try to alleviate some of your worries:** _ **The Dragonets Aren't Coming**_ **IS NOT DEAD.** _ **I**_ **am not dead. Neither I nor this AU have ever been dead, really, just in… an extended coma, perhaps? I've been working on a lot of things behind the scenes—perhaps too many things, really—and while very few of those "things" have been integrated into the story as of now, I have plans to change that. I'm as fed up with my inactivity as I'm sure you are, I assure you—and while I did** _ **not**_ **pick the best time to resurrect myself, with school starting and all, I do feel a certain amount of drive in me that I'd lost all of last year—the same kind of drive that I had when I first started the story.**

 **If you want proof of this, go back to chapter one.**

 **Surprise: I did update my story. Just not at the end.**

 **Yes, I'm rewriting** _ **The Dragonets Aren't Coming**_ **(which I'm going to have to start calling TDAC now because** _ **gosh dangit**_ **that title takes too long to write). It's a rewrite that's been in the works since** _ **before**_ **I left, and it's what I plan to focus on before updating the latter parts of the story. And yes, I realize that this resolution of mine brings in its own worries and frustrations—and believe me, I am worried and frustrated about the exact same things as you.**

 **First of all, the frustration. You want to see more of the story, not the same stuff over again—believe me when I say that I understand that. But hear me out: there is a** _ **serious**_ **juxtaposition between my first 20 or so chapters and the ones that come after Clay goes into the rainforest. I'm not going to pretend like the later chapters are perfect, because they** _ **aren't**_ **, but in general, they're more-detailed, better-paced, and overall higher-quality than my early ones. There are also continuity errors (one of which has been edited out already), canonical errors, and just plain unclear terminology in all sorts of places around this story, which, again, have been on an "I need to fix this" list since** _ **last April.**_ **It just turns out that I suck at getting around to this stuff—but if I can keep up a relatively steady pace, the revisions should be done by the end of the year (I want to say; my update schedule, however, has not exactly been something to pride myself on), and the story's quality should even out a bit.**

 **Secondly, and (I think) more importantly, the worries. Too many things go into revisions and never come out, and I really,** _ **really**_ **don't want to have that happen to this story. There's also the fear that I'll mess up a chapter and make it worse than before, or that the story will lose the soul it had or something and just feel dead—I get all of that** ** **—** but honestly, I'm a lot more concerned on this re-write taking another forever than anything else. It says a lot when in… March of this year, I think (?), I literally had my mouse hovering over that "publish" button with a revised chapter one (the one with Morrowseer, not to be confused with the one that says "chapter one") ready to post—and never worked up the courage to click that button. That said (and I enumerate this on said chapter's update log, too), chapter one is, like, my least favorite chapter in the entire story. I like to think that revisions are going to get easier as I get back into describing the things I care more about.**

 **Final note: This huge block of text only applies** _ **for now**_ **. I may get that new chapter out in the middle of the re-write. After all, even if you find it hard to believe, I** _ **do**_ **have a good majority of** _ **The Dragonets Aren't Coming**_ **in a half-written, rough draft-like state. I have a very good idea of where the story is going, especially near where I left off. There are also a couple things that I've been messing with in the spare time I don't have, some of which are** _ **Wings of Fire**_ **related. So we'll see how things go.**

 **Oh yeah, and I've got one last thing for all you readers: Thank you, really, for putting up with all my crap. I've seen every review (and PM) that's come in, but I was either so intent on finishing whatever chapter I was working on or so focused on dealing with multiple tons of stress from real life that I didn't give a response to anyone. Yeah, I've been updating my profile (occasionally), but still… some sort of update in a more trafficked area (like here) was probably in order. Hopefully, I'll manage to continue this story before the year is over. Again, we'll see how things go.  
**

* * *

 _ **This is the Revision Train. This engine tracks what I'm currently revising, and will be updated promptly after a re-worked chapter is posted. This "update" won't show up in any update notifications, so if you're curious about where I'm at (and how long it'll be until the next**_ **new _chapter)_** **,** _ **you'll have to check here again.**_

 _ **All Aboard the Revision Train! Choo choo!**_

 **Next stop: Part 1 - Chapter 2**


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